South African skipper AB de Villiers is very upset with on-field umpires after he was questioned about the condition of the ball much before the start of the 34th over of England’s innings when spinner Keshav Maharaj went on to bowl, on his 50-over debut while donning the colourful national jersey.
After failing to chase down the target of seven in the last-over thriller of the second One-day International at Southampton of the three-match Royal London series which was eventually clinched by England 2-0, with one match to go, de Villiers hit out against on-field umpires after he was left fuming during the lengthy discussion with umpires, who were just following the protocol.
“I honestly told the umpires we have nothing to do with the condition of ball, except for the fact that [Keshav] Maharaj bowled five overs on the trot from that end,” de Villiers was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Chris Gaffaney and Rob Bailey were the two on-field umpires, who went on to discuss the matter of scuffed up white-ball with de Villiers which has further overshadowed the thrilling contest prior to the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy which will kick start on June 1 at The Oval between hosts and Bangladesh.
“”Unfortunately the umpires didn’t agree. [But] nothing happened, generally there’s a warning or a fine, none of that happened, which tells me they realised we were innocent in this case. The ball generally scuffs up when the spinner bowls a few overs. I expressed my views about that and we move on,” Maintained de Villiers.
The disappointed 33-year-old de Villiers expressed his anguish after saying his side was not at the fault to change the shape of the ball as umpires, according to the prolific batsman made him feel the Proteas were culprits.
“The umpires felt the condition of the ball changed. In a way, making me feel that we are responsible. I was quite upset about that. I don’t know what else I can say, I was pretty upset,” de Villiers remarked.
However, de Villiers cleared the air by adding there were no fines being levied on them while responding to a question whether insinuation from umpires was to implicate the Proteas has scuffed up the ball.
“Yes. That’s the feeling that I got and I expressed that I was quite upset about it. But like I said, no further steps were taken from both parties,” de Villiers added.
In 2016, Faf du Plessis was caught on one of the broadcasting crew cameras in Hobart Test against Australia when he was seen applying a saliva to shine the ball while sucking the mint which was reported by Australia media.
“If I can give my five cents, I felt it was a bad ball and that happens sometimes. The leather comes off and you do get that,” de Villiers points out.
On the other side, England skipper Eoin Morgan stated his team wasn’t aware of the scuffed up ball while adding if there happened to been an issue with the ball it gets changed ‘straightaway’.
The explosive batsman de Villiers has effusively praised England bowlers while terming it was a close contest as his teammates did well to make it an exciting contest.
“I thought the boys played a great hand at the end there, to get us so close. I got a bit excited, thought we had it in the bag. Got to give credit to the last two bowlers of England, who finished there, they showed some great skill and good plans,” de Villiers revealed.
The reports suggested match referee Andy Pycroft was in talks with third umpire Rod Tucker and both on-field umpires soon after the game ended.
However, the officials of the match didn’t brief media about the matter which highly likely seemed to have pacified now.