Embarrassing defeat by India will leave 'mental scars': South Africa's du Plessis

An embarrassing defeat at the hands of India will leave "mental scars", South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis said on Tuesday, saying it was "then obviously it’s difficult to come out of that hole”.

India's newbie, Shahbaz Nadeem, took the final two wickets in straight balls as India thrashed South Africa by an innings and 202 runs in the third Test on Tuesday to complete a 3-0 series sweep.

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"You got to give credit to the Indian team. This is a really tough Indian team under Virat," he added. “It shows that our structures are not where they need to be.

"The gap between domestic and international cricket, if you look back three or four years and if someone had the vision of saying, in three of four years ‘time there will be a lot of inexperienced guys.

Read more: India leave South Africa hurting with Test series sweep

"A lot of 34-, 35-, 36-year-old could possibly retire. So what do you do to make sure you get yourself ready for when that time comes?

“The process will probably take a bit longer. So for me, our next journey now is trying to make sure that we get a lot stronger as a cricketing team mentally. " he said.