‘If players do not perform, there will be a lot of harsh words’: Faf du Plessis

Cape Town: South Africa's situation went from bad to worse as they lost their second consecutive match in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup. After facing a massive 104-run defeat at the hands of England, South Africa struggled to chase the 331-run target against Bangladesh, who won the match by 21 runs.

This unconvincing performance from South Africa exasperated their skipper Faf du Plessis as he said that he is not a 'Mr Nice Guy' and if players do not perform then there will be a lot of "harsh words".

"From my style of captaincy, there has always been a line, and if you don't perform to that line, then there will be a lot of harsh words. I'm certainly not Mr. Nice Guy," Sport24.co.za quoted Du Plessis as saying.

Despite Du Plessis played a knock of 62 runs, his team failed to chase the target set by Bangladesh. Assessing his team's performance against Bangladesh after going down to England, Plessis said that their performance was "not good enough".

"There are times for strictness and there are times that you see a dressing room needs you to be strong and to motivate them, and that was the case with the previous game when we lost to England the way we did. But now, today (Sunday) was not good enough," he said.

Du Plessis did not cite any reason for their loss to Bangladesh as he said that there are no excuses.

"There are absolutely no excuses from me. So if the guys think they can make excuses for a performance like today, then they will be challenged. That's a fact," he said.

South Africa will now face India for their next World Cup match on June 5.