du Plessis: ' Davids gets better with age'
|Published
FORM MAN: Henry Davids. Picture: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix. FORM MAN: Henry Davids. Picture: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix.
Paarl Rocks captain Faf du Plessis says Henry Davids just gets better with age after he smashed them to the Mzansi Super League title on Monday night.
The 39-year-old clobbered the quickest half-century of the campaign in the deciding match of 2019 as the hosts beat the Tshwane Spartans by eight wickets, fittingly in the Cape Winelands at Boland Park.
Chasing a modest target, kept to 148 thanks to outstanding bowling by Tabraiz Shamsi (2/29) and Isuru Udana (2/24), Davids blew away the bowling with 77 off 44 balls (8 fours, 4 sixes), for a 22-ball 50, as the Rocks won with more than five overs to spare.
And Du Plessis says of his star man: “Henry is like a good bottle of red wine; he just gets better the later the tournament goes and with age.
“And once again it was a different guy standing up and putting in a good performance, which has been the case pretty much in every game this season. It’s an unbelievable team performance.”
CONFIDENT: Tabraiz Shamsi put on another superb performance in the MSL. Picture: Phando Jikelo/ANA.
Skipper Du Plessis surprised most by opting to bowl first after winning the toss in front of a sell-out crowd. But his bowlers, led by Shamsi and Udana, all fired.
Only AB de Villiers hurt the home side with his 51 off 37 balls (3 fours, 1 six), although that hardly hurt a confident home side, who eventually ran out as deserved winners of MSL 2.0.
Davids then led a dominant showing for his side, and, with help coming from Dwaine Pretorius (43 off 20 balls), the home side won with a mighty 34 deliveries to spare.
MSL WINNERS: Paarl Rocks. Picture: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix.
Du Plessis adds: “To finish the way we did was great. I thought the last two games were our best games of the campaign.
“That’s what you want to do towards the end.
“There were fantastic team performances right the way through.
"We’ve lost a lot of so-called ‘name players’ along the way and the fact that all the guys just got together as a team and everyone chipped in on different occasions it was a remarkable team effort.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/PaarlRocks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PaarlRocksare the @MSL_T202.0 champions! The whole team came to the party to overcome the @SpartansMSLT20 and claim the trophy. A massive thank you to the unbelievable community of Paarl, this title is for YOU!
Full video -> https://t.co/MyvXjht1Xd pic.twitter.com/BVidCybVvJ
— Paarl Rocks (@Paarl_Rocks)