Faf du Plessis

Du Plessis made his ODI debut on 18 January 2011 against India and made unbeaten 60 runs. He was chosen ahead of Albie Morkel for the 2011 World Cup on the Indian Sub-continent and later made his Test debut for South Africa against Australia at the Adelaide Oval in 2012 as the number 6 batsman, replacing the injured JP Duminy.

He scored 188 runs in the match and was selected as Man-of-the-match for his resilient performance that ultimately led to the match being drawn and the series being square before the third and final Test in which he scored 78 runs the 1st innings and the last man to be dismissed, taking the South African score to 388 in reply to Australia's 550. In the 2nd innings, he scored a match-saving 110 not out from 376 balls over 466 minutes.

In the next test at WACA Ground, he scored a resilient unbeaten 78 from 142 balls to take his team's score to 225 in the 1st innings, from 75/6 with able support from Robin Peterson (31 off 45), Vernon Philander (30 from 54) and last man Morne Morkel (17 from 15). South Africa won the 3-match Test Series against Australia 1–0. In December 2012, he was named captain of the South African T20 team for three matches against New Zealand.[2]

In October 2013, he was fined 50% of his match fee after being found guilty of ball tampering in a Test match against Pakistan.[19]

In December 2013, he scored a test match saving hundred with a score of 134 off 309 balls against India while chasing 458 to win in the 4th innings. The match ended in a draw with South Africa on 450/7, only 8 runs short from what would have been the highest successful run chase in test match history. Du Plessis made his maiden ODI hundred on 27 August 2014 against Australia after scoring 106 off 98 balls while chasing 327 runs to win. His partnership of 206 runs with AB de Villiers for the 3rd wicket is the highest for South Africa against Australia.

He was also named in the T20I XI by Cricinfo for his performances in 2013.[20]

His second Hundred came only 6 days later in his next ODI match on 2 September 2014. He scored 126 from 109 balls against the same opposition although South Africa lost by 62 runs. After making his maiden ODI hundred on 27 August 2014, and a consecutive ODI hundred on 2 September 2014, Du Plessis followed with a third consecutive ODI hundred, scoring 121 off 140 balls, this time against Zimbabwe on 4 September 2014. (South Africa were playing an ODI tri-series with Australia and Zimbabwe.)

On 6 September 2014 against Australia, Du Plessis fell only 4 runs short of becoming the first batsman in history to score 4 ODI hundreds in a row. (This would also have been a record for the most ODI hundreds by a batsman in any ICC ODI tournament) He initially looked on course to achieve his 4th ODI hundred until his batting partner AB de Villiers hit 2 sixes and a four in quick succession, which meant Du Plessis had to obtain all the remaining runs in the game single-handedly if he was to reach this milestone. Needing only 1 run to win the game with plenty of wickets and balls in hand, Du Plessis was on 96 and therefore had to hit a boundary (barring any extras) in order to reach 4 ODI hundreds in a row, but while attempting to hit a boundary he was caught off the bowling of Australia's spear-head Mitchell Johnson. South Africa still went on to win the ODI match against Australia comfortably by 6 wickets. This victory also secured South Africa as the winners of the ODI tri-series, and Du Plessis subsequently became Man of the Series.

On 17 December 2014, Du Plessis set the record for playing the most number of international cricket innings before scoring a duck (108) and also became the only batsman to play in over 100 international innings before first ever duck.[21][22] On 27 December 2014, Du Plessis scored his second first innings century at the same ground: St. George's Oval. On 11 January 2015, du Plessis scored 119 in 56 balls against West Indies, becoming the first South African to score centuries in all forms of the game.

For the 2016–17 Australian tour of South Africa to play five ODIs, du Plessis was named captain after original skipper AB de Villiers ruled out due to a surgery.[23] On 2 October, du Plessis scored his sixth century in the second game and became the second cricketer to score centuries in all international formats as captain, after Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan. During that same match at Johannesburg, du Plessis become the first batsman to score centuries in all three formats of cricket at a single venue.[24] Till April 2018, he has scored 17 international centuries (seven Test, nine ODI and one T20I) and is the first South African to score a century in all international formats).

Du Plessis is the first player to score a century in an innings of a day/night Test as captain. In the same game he set the record for declaration of the lowest ever total ever as an unbeaten captain, where he remained unbeaten on 118 in South Africa's first innings score of 259/9 dec.[25]

On 12 December 2016, with AB de Villiers stepping down as Test Captain, du Plessis also inherited the role.[26]

On 7 February 2017, du Plessis scored 185 runs in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka, the second highest individual score by a South African, just three runs short of Gary Kirsten's 188*.

On 24 August 2017, ODI captain De Villiers stepped down from captaincy and Du Plessis was named as the captain in all three formats. On the same day, he was named as the captain of World XI team for the three T20Is in Lahore, Pakistan.[27] Pakistan won the series 2–1.[28] Following the conclusion of the series, Faf du Plessis said how much it meant for the people of Pakistan and that it hopefully will bring cricket back to the country.[29]

In March 2019, in the second ODI against Sri Lanka, Du Plessis scored his 5,000th run in ODI cricket.[30] The following month, he was named as the captain of South Africa's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.[31][32] He finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer for South Africa, with 387 runs in nine matches.[33]

In August 2019, he was named the Men's Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's annual award ceremony.[34][35] In December 2020, in the first Test against Sri Lanka, du Plessis scored his 4,000th run and his tenth century in Test cricket.[36] He ended with 199, becoming the 13th player to be dismissed on 199 in Tests,[37] and also won the man of the match award.[38]

Twice, du Plessis has been found guilty of ball tampering during his international career. The first time was during The Oval Test match in 2013 against Pakistan. In 2016, du Plessis was caught again ball tampering during the Hobart Test match against Australia.

The first incident against Pakistan involved du Plessis rubbing the ball against a zip on his trousers in order to change the nature of the ball. This was caught on video and du Plessis was subsequently found guilty. He was fined 50% of his match fee. The second incident against Australia involved du Plessis rubbing what looked like a "lolly" or mint, on the ball in order to make one side sticky. Du Plessis denied any wrongdoing and he pleaded not guilty to the charge. His teammate Hashim Amla defended him in a statement to the Australian media about the incident stating that the tampering claims were "a joke" and called them "ridiculous".[39]

Regardless of the denials, du Plessis was found guilty of ball tampering on 21 November 2016. He was subsequently fined 100% of his match fee for the second Test against Australia and he was given three demerit points.[40] Four demerit points within 24 months leads to a one Test or two limited-over games suspension.[41] Du Plessis played the next test and scored a century. The following month he was made captain of the South African cricket team.