South Africa’s brilliant performance in Australia can be marred by a huge controversy as a new sensational video has shown the visiting captain Faf du Plessis shining the ball during the second Test in Hobart with a lolly in his mouth. The clip showed de Plessis repeatedly licking his finger before vigorously rubbing the ball.

The video clipping is likely to make people raise their fingers towards the South African team especially after their fast bowlers performed sensationally well in the match and helped the Proteas to dismiss the Aussies for 85 and 161 in the match.

Under the MCC laws of cricket, no artificial substance can be used to polish the ball.
Law 42.3 states that: “Any fielder may polish the ball provided that no artificial substance is used and that such polishing wastes no time”.

Here is the clip of that incident:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqz8PMa-BFg

The South African team also received a warning during the first Test when their fielders were accused of deliberately bouncing the ball along the ground, to rough it up for getting the reverse swing. The incident was later downplayed by du Plessis who said that it was blown out of proportion.
He had said: “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.I was quite impressed.

“Twenty-five overs is very early for the 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,” he added.

Meanwhile, du Plessis is also not new to such incidents. He was fined by the ICC for rubbing the ball on the zipper of his pants in a Test match against Pakistan in 2013.Although he accepted the charges, he said that he had no intentions of any malfunction.

The visitors are currently leading the three-match series by 2-0 and the final match will be played from November 24.