SA vs ENG 2020: WATCH – Faf du Plessis Takes a Stunning Diving Catch in Johannesburg Test

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis showed a superb fielding effort to dismiss England captain Joe Root in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test. The incident took place on the third delivery of the 64th over when Root edged the ball from Beuran Hendricks towards du Plessis at gully. As the ball was going past the right of du Plessis, he dived full length to grab a stunning one-handed catch.

As Root was the last England batsman got out, du Plessis’ catch bowled them out for 248 in 61.3 overs. Came to bat at No. 4 in the 26th over, Root scored his 48th Test half-century, top-scoring 58 (96) with five fours and a six. However, with this dismissal, left-arm pacer Beuran Hendricks registered his maiden five-wicket haul on debut.

Although he failed to do well in the first innings as he registered bowling figures of 23-3-111-1, he did excessively well in the second innings (15.3-2-64-5). With the dismissal, South Africa got 466 runs to chase down. If they managed to do so, the series will be levelled by 2-2. Apart from Root, Sam Curran and Mark Wood scored quickfire 35 and 18 runs respectively at the end to post 248.

Faf du Plessis grabs a stunning diving catch

However, du Plessis failed to do so with the bat, scoring 35 off 92 with 5 boundaries. Although, the team management and head coach Mark Boucher has backed him, citing that he will lead the side as well.

“He is under pressure from a weight of runs as well, from captaincy, all that stuff,” Boucher said. “The players back him in the dressing room. It’s nice to see him take that catch towards the end of the day. Hopefully it will lift his spirits. He will go out there and fight. He understands that he is the leader and he wants to do well and lead from the front. Hopefully there is something big around the corner for Faf. The whole scene is set for him to come in under pressure and score big runs and hopefully get us close to winning a Test match.”