“I think it’s been blown out of proportion”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

South Africa stand-in captain Faf du Plessis has denied accusations that he tampered with the ball during the first Test against Australia in Perth.

Du Plessis was warned by the umpires for bouncing the ball on the ground, seemingly in an effort to rough it up and get it to reverse swing.

The 32-year-old insisted that it wasn’t a deliberate act, and added that Australia got the ball to reverse swing as well.

“I think it’s been blown out of proportion. We were watching the first innings in Perth and they (Australia) got the ball to reverse in the 25th over,” Du Plessis said. “I was quite impressed. I was trying to see how they were doing it because that meant they were doing something right. Twenty-five overs is very early for ball to reverse.

“We are a bowling attack and we enjoy bowling with a swinging ball. To say it was only for us is not true. It was 50-50 the amount of reverse swing throughout that Test. The Aussies did it really well.”

Sticking on the topic of reverse swing, Du Plessis pointed out that the Proteas are unlikely to get the ball to do that as much in the second Test in Hobart as the conditions are a lot different than they were in Perth.

“Perth was really dry and extremely hard. It will be different here,” he said. “It is lush, it’s green, it’s soft, it’s wet. It will seam and swing, but won’t reverse that much.”

South Africa hold on to a 1-0 leading going into the second Test on Saturday as they crushed Australia by 177 runs at the WACA.