Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has been a phenomenal talent. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), he plays for one of the most successful teams, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), headed by former Indian skipper MS Dhoni.
At the time when almost every country is facing lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many cricketers are heading towards social media platforms to chat with their fans, and Du Plessis is no different.
Recently the Proteria-born shared a clip on social media in which he picked some of the finest knocks of IPL played by his teammates for CSK. He did that after Suresh Raina nominated him by using a hashtag #MyIPLmoment.
Du Plessis started the proceedings by picking Raina’s breathtaking century in 2013 against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
“In 2013, Suresh Raina scored a hundred against Kings XI Punjab that won us a game on his own. That was a fantastic inning,” said Du Plessis.
Next, Du Plessis went with Dwayne Bravo’s magical innings where the Caribbean rockstar shattered Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling attack by smashing a 30-ball 68 run knock in 2018. The former Proteas cricketer also showered praise on Shane Watson for his daddy hundreds in the knock-out games of the cash-rich league.
“In 2018, Dwayne Bravo against Mumbai Indians. We were completely out of the game, he came in it 7-8 and 67 or 70 off 40-odd balls. That was basically hitting just sixes. How we won that game, I still don’t know it,” added Du Plessis.
The 35-year-old didn’t just stop there, as he chose another excellent inning in the IPL as his favourite memory. Du Plessis picked CSK skipper MS Dhoni’s spectacular knock of 84 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2019.
“I see him (Dhoni) as the best finisher of the game. He has played so many unbelievable knocks but to mention one; I’ll go with his last year’s performance against RCB. We were down and out and it looked like we should get bowled out on 90, but he was in at that moment and absorbed pressure really well. He just hit six here and there, and we thought we are back in the game.”
“Then he (Dhoni) started hitting more and more sixes, and I was sitting there, and I was going [what is going on here, that is ridiculous]. The sixes he was hitting was out of the stadiums he ended up getting an 87 off 40 oddballs. So if I had to pick one moment, I’d pick that innings,” Du Plessis signed-off.
#Faf has taken @ImRaina's #MyIPLMoment challenge and mentions quite a few legendary ones. But we are not gonna let him discount his incredible 67* off 42 to take us Fafulously into the 2018 Final! :') The baton now passes on to @mhussey393! #WhistlePodu @faf1307 🦁💛 pic.twitter.com/okpiPWOQDH
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 15, 2020
Earlier, Raina also picked his favourite moments from CSK. He went with Matthew Hayden’s unreal knock of 93 against Delhi Daredevils. The left-handed batsman recalled the Australian’s blistering innings saying: “You (Hayden) scored 93 against Delhi with the ‘mongoose’ bat. Every ball was going out of the park, and you played really well on that wicket since it was turning. We had a good partnership in the game, and you made me believe that we can win this game.”
Raina, who captained the ‘Yellow Team’ in that match since MS Dhoni was absent, also remembered how Hayden had signed the bat he used in the particular game and gave it to him.
“I still have that bat you (Hayden) gave me, signed bat. I’m going to share it with you, and I hope you remember that autograph,” added Raina.
Beautiful memories of #Yellove & @IPL brother @HaydosTweets. One of my favourite innings with you is CSKvsDD from 2010, where I got your autographed bat which is a very precious part of my collection till date. Here I pass it on to @faf1307 to share his favourite moments of #IPL. https://t.co/mWU9CwsvJz pic.twitter.com/06NdAqSnEc
— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) April 13, 2020
