South Africa batter Faf du Plessis has gone past Indian icon Virat Kohli in a major T20 record list on Sunday, January 26. Du Plessis, who has still not retired from limited-overs cricket, entered into a historic list during the SA20 2025.
Du Plessis leads Joburg Super Kings in the South African domestic franchise tournament. During JSK's reverse fixture against defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the Wanderers Stadium on Sunday, du Plessis featured in his 400 T20 match, going past Kohli, who has played 399 T20 games so far.
The 40-year-old is the third South African player to feature in 400 T20 games after David Miller and Imran Tahir, who have played 516 and 426 games, respectively. Overall, du Plessis is the 22nd player to play in 400 games.
South African players with the most appearances in T20s:
1 - David Miller: 516 matches
2 - Imran Tahir: 426 matches
3 - Faf du Plessis: 400 matches
4 - Quinton de Kock: 377 matches
5 - Rilee Rossouw: 367 matches
Coming to the match, SEC won the toss and opted to bat first. "We are gonna bat first. Looks like a pretty good wicket, a typical Wanderers wicket. Hopefully, we can pile on some runs early on and then defend it later. We've been playing good cricket, we've tried to keep things simple. That's pretty much the conversation. Harmer misses out, and Swanepoel comes in. It's a great day, nice and warm, looking forward to it. Nice game to be a part of," SEC skipper Aiden Markram said at the toss.
"Wasn't quite sure (what to do), just asked the local coaches what they thought and they wanted to bowl first, so happy to do. Zero improvements on the injury front. Two changes today. Moeen Ali comes in and Pathirana comes back in. Hopefully we can see some action.
"Sunrsiers were a great example of that in year one, they played scratchy cricket right through the tournament and then got on a roll. T20 cricket is like that sometimes. I feel we are very close. The margins are very small. Last year, we had a similar away record and then came back here and we won four from four at home. See what the wicket does, hopefully, it's a good one and we can chase," JSK captain du Plessis said at the toss.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape's Playing XI: Zak Crawley, David Bedingham, Tom Abell, Aiden Markram(c), Tristan Stubbs(w), Jordan Hermann, Marco Jansen, Liam Dawson, Beyers Swanepoel, Ottneil Baartman, Richard Gleeson
Joburg Super Kings' Playing XI: Faf du Plessis(c), Devon Conway, Wihan Lubbe, Jonny Bairstow(w), Moeen Ali, Donovan Ferreira, Evan Jones, Hardus Viljoen, Imran Tahir, Lutho Sipamla, Matheesha Pathirana