The captain of the South African ODI team, AB de Villiers, has lauded Chris Morris for his brilliant bowling performance in his debut ODI match against Pakistan yesterday.
Morris bowled with good pace and intensity and created a lot of problems for the Pakistani batsmen upfront. He dismissed a couple of top order Pakistani batsmen in his first spell.
It’s because of his initial burst that Pakistan couldn’t get off to a quick start chasing down the modest target of 235.
Morris finished with the figures of 2-25 in 7 overs. That’s not a bad effort at all for a debutant.
When de Villiers was asked about Morris in the post match press conference, he said, “It was a great debut for Chris. He bowled accurately with the new ball and gave us those early breakthroughs which we needed badly.”
“It’s not easy to bowl such kind of spell on debut and that too in such a big tournament. But, Chris showed exceptional temperament. He was spot on right from the first ball of his spell.”
When asked about the overall performance of his team, de Villiers said, “It was tough hitting boundaries on that wicket. There was quite a bit of help there for the bowlers. Also, Pakistan’s bowling attack is quite formidable. So, I think we did well to reach 234.”
“We put them under pressure with early wickets and we never let that pressure come off. The spinners kept things tight in the middle overs and then, at the end, Ryan McLaren was just superb.”
When asked about the fitness of Dale Steyn, de Villiers said, “Dale is making good progress and we are hoping to have him back for the next game.”
Steyn hasn’t featured for South Africa in their first two games in the Champions Trophy.