South Africa captain Faf du Plessis admitted his team was comprehensively outplayed by England in its Cricket World Cup opener on Thursday, but found plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the tournament.

Host England made 311 for eight before bowling out the South Africans for 207. “England was better in all three facets of the game,” du Plessis told reporters. “But it’s a league (round-robin) competition. As disappointed as we are with our performance, we have to learn from it and put every single doubt to bed as we have to play cricket again.” SA bowled and fielded tightly, restricting England’s usually free-scoring batsmen to only three sixes in the innings and a modest 76 runs off the last 10 overs. Although Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes made fifties, none were able to go on to make three figures. “I thought we did a good job with the ball,” du Plessis said. “England bat longer than anyone else, so if you can stop it, you are doing a great job.” The visitor’s reply was hampered by an injury to Hashim Amla, who was forced to retire hurt after being struck on the helmet by a Jofra Archer bouncer. “The flow of the innings was affected with Hashim coming off. While chasing a big score, you need a good start and settled partnerships,” stated the 34-year-old.

“Pitch was good enough, Archer bowled well with the new ball. It will take time for international players to get used to his action. That’s why he’s such an X-factor bowler – he broke through our opening three.” du Plessis was pleased with his tactic of opening the bowling with leg-spinner Imran Tahir. The slow bowler dismissed Jonny Bairstow in the second ball of the match to give SA a flying start.

“It was something we thought about a year ago,” du Plessis said. “It’s something different. My gut said Imran had a big chance of getting a wicket, he’s been practising with the new ball for a couple of weeks.” SA’s next match is against Bangladesh at the same venue on Sunday.