Faf du Plessis delighted by South Africa's T20I consistency

After a 2-0 series win over England, Faf du Plessis, South Africa's Twenty20 International (T20I) skipper expressed delight at his team's consistency over the last 12 months in the shortest format of the game. South Africa have endured a tough time in Tests, losing five out of their last eight games (four in India and two against England at home) but their T20I form has been spectacular, with eight wins in nine games.

"I honestly don't feel that we have a hole in our team. I don't feel that there are any weak areas, I feel that we have a well-balanced squad of 15 players and the 11 that are playing at the moment are doing really well. What you look for from players as a captain is consistency and our consistency in T20 cricket over the last two years has been excellent," Du Plessis said on Sunday (February 21).

South Africa's limited-overs side managed to lift the gloom following a Test series defeat to England at home as they bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to win the One-Day International (ODI) series 3-2 and carried forward their momentum into the T20Is. Du Plessis acknowledged his team's winning habit and reckoned they will look to keep it going in the home games against Australia, in the lead up to the show-piece event.

"It's great that we are winning. We will take a week off to rest, it has been a long series against England, then we will come back against Australia and still try to improve and gain some momentum leading up to the World Cup," the skipper said.

Even ahead of the series, du Plessis maintained that the games against England and Australia were more about preparation than the results. Following their 2-0 victory, the 31-year-old reflected on the learnings.

"We learnt the lessons from the previous game. We didn't start well in the previous game but on Sunday we were excellent. In the first three or four overs we set the tone beautifully with KG (Kagiso Rabada) and (Kyle) Abbott," he opined.

Du Plessis was also impressed by his team's exploits in the death overs of the second fixture against England as the visitors rode on some good performances at the top of the order before slipping from 133 for 3 in 15 overs to being bowled out for 171 in 20 overs.

"England played well along with some bad execution from our part, and to bring it back like we did, to go for six overs for 30-odd runs along with six wickets is unheard of in T20 cricket. It means a lot for us as a death bowling unit, it's something that we have worked hard on and it's something we pride ourselves on, having great options at the death," Du Plessis explained.

South Africa's form in the format gives rise to optimism ahead of the World T20, but du Plessis & Co. aren't resting on their laurels yet with the focus squarely on trying to improve the side. "For me it's about trying to improve as a team. We are getting better with the mistakes that we make and the areas that we want to get better at, and there is still a lot of improvement to come as a team. It was a great finish with the ball but we were not as good as we could have been from overs 12 to 15. I look at the areas where we can still improve as a team."

South Africa host Australia for three T20Is from March 4.