Faf du Plessis

South Africa|Middle order Batter
Faf du Plessis
INTL CAREER: 2011 - 2021
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Full Name

Francois du Plessis

Born

July 13, 1984, Pretoria

Age

39y 259d

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Legbreak

Playing Role

Middle order Batter

Height

5ft 11in

Education

Affies Boys School, Pretoria

RELATIONS

(brother-in-law)

Faf du Plessis IPL factfile

- Faf du Plessis has won two IPL finals, both with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), in 2018 and 2021.

- Du Plessis was the Player of the Match in the 2021 final for his 59-ball 86, which took CSK to 192 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

- Du Plessis has played for two other teams in the IPL: Rising Pune Supergiant (RPSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), captaining RCB since 2022.

- As of 2024, he is one of the only five players to have scored 4000 or more IPL runs without a century to their name. The others are MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir.

Faf du Plessis player profile

Classy, composed and a fine crafter of innings', Faf du Plessis emerged as one of South Africa's most consistent batsmen in the post-Jacques Kallis era. Du Plessis is strong on the front foot, has impeccable defences and enjoys spending time at the crease. A natural leader, du Plessis was put in charge of the T20 side in February 2013 and formed part of the senior core in other formats.

All that may have been lost when, in 2007, du Plessis signed a Kolpak deal with Lancashire. Unlike his high-school contemporary, AB de Villiers, du Plessis did not manage to fast-track himself into the international spotlight and looked abroad for other opportunities. Apart from learning the rigours of the county system, du Plessis made a name for his fielding.

He returned to South Africa to play domestic cricket every summer and topped the MTN40 run charts in the 2010-11 season. His Kolpak deal had expired by then and he was selected in South Africa's one-day squad for the home series against India in January 2011. A half-century on debut sealed his spot for the World Cup that followed. At that point, du Plessis was known as an aggressive ball-striker and quick run-scorer.

He was part of the South Africa Test squad that took the Test mace off England in mid-2012, but did not play a game, instead getting a T20 debut on that tour. He got his Test chance on South Africa's tour to Australia later that year and followed his first-innings 78 in the second Test in Adelaide with a stonewalling effort for the ages in the second innings. Du Plessis spent more than seven-and-a-half hours at the crease, faced 376 balls and remained unbeaten on 110 to take South Africa to an unlikely draw, which set them up for a series win in Perth.

His curve continued upwards when in December that year, du Plessis was given the T20 captaincy in a series against New Zealand, despite only having played four T20Is prior to that. He was then given the role permanently the following February. Du Plessis had established himself as a complete batsmen, who had the ability to shift gears and anchor an innings, and played a similar knock against India in December 2013. His 134 in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test took South Africa within eight runs of completing the highest successful Test chase, 458, and in the end secured a draw. When Kallis retired after the next match, du Plessis was an automatic choice for promotion to No.3.

It took du Plessis a little longer to repeat those feats in limited-overs. In his 51st ODI, he finally scored his first century in the format, against Australia in a triangular series in Harare in August 2014, but then the floodgates opened. Two more hundreds came in that series, which South Africa won.

Du Plessis took good form into the 2015 World Cup, after becoming the second South African to score a T20I century after Richard Levi, in February that year. He was among those left devastated by South Africa's semi-final loss.

While du Plessis continued to rack up runs in ODIs, he was criticised for occasionally scoring too slowly. He started to struggle in the longest format and after managing just one fifty in 12 innings in the 2015-16 season, he was dropped for the final Test against England in January 2016.

Du Plessis led South Africa in two World T20 campaigns, in 2014 and 2016, and despite them returning empty-handed from both, he confirmed his desire to keep the captaincy.

Faf du Plessis Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests6911814416319940.02898646.32102151621630
ODIs14313620550718547.47621588.60123549566810
T20Is50507152811935.531137134.3811014050240
FC15025026879819939.27--1852--1410
List A26224442948318546.941059989.472157--1470
T20s360340389725120*32.207276133.655658753371780

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests69578690---5.30-000
ODIs1431119218921/81/894.505.9096.0000
T20Is502830---2.25-000
FC150-25581477414/39-36.023.4662.3300
List A262-22382030544/474/4737.595.4441.4100
T20s36052790917505/195/1918.346.9615.8120
Francois du Plessis

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Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell are understandably pleased after Shikhar Dhawan's fall
Faf du Plessis won the toss and asked Shikhar Dhawan to bat first
Faf du Plessis is unlikely to be the last captain discussing bouncer-height with the umpire in IPL 2024
Faf du Plessis was busy in the field
Faf du Plessis did the most of the scoring in the opening stand with Virat Kohli
Faf du Plessis capitalised on bad bowling in the powerplay