Faf du Plessis’ 2nd Highest Score Helps Take Proteas to Highest Total at Newlands Ever

Faf du Plessis played one of the innings of his life on Tuesday… and then had to watch helplessly as Sri Lanka’s acting captain, Upul Tharanga, almost stole his thunder in a memorable fourth ODI at Newlands, in South Africa.

In the end the Proteas achieved what looked like a clear-cut win by 40 runs to go 4-0 up in the series and extend their winning home run to 13 matches… but it was anything but that.

Sri Lanka were right in the game until the start of the 44th over when Kagiso Rabada, as he has often done in his brief career, broke a fifth wicket partnership of 79 runs between Sandun Weerakkody and Asela Gunaratne that sparked an astonishing collapse that saw Sri Lanka lose their last 6 wickets for 20 runs off 27 balls.

Earlier in the day Du Plessis had made the second highest score ever by a Proteas of 185 (141 balls, 16 fours and 3 sixes) – only Gary Kirsten has done better with his 188 against the United Arab Emirates at the 1996 World Cup – to set Sri Lanka what seemed an impossible victory target of 368, bearing in mind they had been unable to score even 200 in the preceding three matches.

Du Plessis became the 9th Protea to make a score of 150 or better although there have been 12 instances in all with Hashim Amla having achieved the feat 3 times and Herschelle Gibbs twice.

Remarkably, all of the top five Protea batsmen in the current first-choice XI – Amla, Quinton de Kock, Du Plessis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy – have now achieved this feat.

The Proteas’ total was also the highest ever at Newlands and meant that they had made totals of 300 plus in back-to-back games at this venue this season.

They had previously made 327/8 against Australia in the famous whitewash series last year.

Du Plessis was named Man of the Match.

Source: Cricket.co.za