Birmingham: Disappointed after South Africa's loss to New Zealand in a thrilling World Cup encounter, skipper Faf du Plessis conceded that his team gave its all and fought till the end even though the result didn't go their way. "You know, it's tough now.
Like you can feel in the dressing room, the guys are hurting. I'm feeling five years older. My body is really sore after that," Faf said at the post-match presser. "So we left everything out there, and that's all I can ask for as a captain, that the guys fought.
They showed that." South Africa were sloppy in the field and the chances they missed eventually cost them the game at Edgbaston. He acknowledged that it was his batter's poor performance, especially the seniors including himself, was the main reason for South Africa's dismal performance in this edition of the showpiece event so far.
"It's just pure numbers on the board. Batters getting the runs that they should. If you look at opposition, there have been big runs scored by batting lineups, you know.
We've got a pretty youngish batting lineup if you take Rassie (van der Dussen), Aiden (Markram), guys like that, even Andile to a degree. He's going really good at his cricket, but he's young in terms of putting innings together," said du Plessis.
