ICC World T20 2016: Du Plessis disappointed with South Africa's performances so far

South African skipper Faf du Plessis is disappointed with the manner in which his side have performed so far at the ongoing ICC World T20 and said that the Proteas have only themselves to blame as they sit on the brink of an elimination at the group stage itself, following losses to England and the West Indies.

"We're not playing close to how good we are or can be, and that's frustrating," du Plessis said, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo. "We want to be better, and unfortunately, we're not producing the goods on the day. As I said, you need a bit of luck but also you make your own luck, and I feel if you win those small moments in the game, generally the luck goes your way.

"[I'm] disappointed, because I had strong hopes of winning the tournament, and now we're hoping for other performances to go our way. We'll obviously be rooting for some opposition to try and do us a favour, but if it doesn't happen like that, there're no excuses."

South Africa lost against a Joe Root-inspired England in their opening game despite scoring a massive 230 runs batting first before beating minnows Afghanistan by a mere 30 runs in a match which the Proteas were expected to hammer the opposition. On Friday, West Indies edged out Du Plessis’ side in a thriller as the former chased down South Africa’s total of 122 in the final over with three wickets in hand.

While young fast bowler Kagiso Rabada and all-rounder Chris Morris shouldered much of the blame following their expensive figures, Du Plessis feels that it is the batsmen who are to be blamed for the narrow loss.

"They didn't bowl us out tonight. We were put in situations where we needed to be smarter and we weren't. If you don't do those things you're not going to bat as well as you can,” he said. "The batting today was the difference between us winning and losing. We needed to get to 130-135 to have a par score. I thought we were 10 runs short, definitely.”

Du Plessis slammed his batsmen for not adapting to the slower surface like how the opposition, usually famed for their big-hitting skills, did.

“Obviously batting first, the thinking was that it wasn't going to be the same wicket as Mumbai, doesn't take a brain surgeon to look at that. But those decisions you make when you're batting, we didn't make them tonight," du Plessis said. "The run-out, caught at mid-off, and Rilee - our first three wickets for me were all soft wickets. AB's wicket was also a soft wicket.

We went into this game thinking that West Indies is a power hitting team and we rely on being smart. Ten or 15 runs more, I think we could have won the game. They don't rely on touch, on getting ones and twos, whereas this ground is spot on for that. That's where we lost the game."

Du Plessis praised the West Indies, who have won all their three games so far, and feels the Darren Sammy-led side thoroughly deserve their spot in the semi-finals stage.

“We were just half a step behind West Indies all the time. But they're playing great cricket and that's why it's going for them. They're a confident team and things will fall their way because you almost earn that luck, and they deserve it," he said.