Australia vs South Africa: Proteas don't plan to taunt hosts for the ball-tampering debacle

2018 has turned out to be equivalent to a nightmare for Australia. Earlier this year during the Cape Town Test against South Africa, three of their players- David Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft- were found guilty in the ball-tampering scandal following which the trio was handed bans by Cricket Australia (CA). Thereafter the team has strained to perform in all the formats.

After the fiasco in March, Australia are again set to lock horns with the Proteas in three ODIs and one T20I, this time around at home. The series gets underway on Sunday, November 4 with the ODI at Perth Stadium. In the meantime, Faf du Plessis, the visiting team’s captain, has mentioned that his team won’t resort to sledging their opponents in the upcoming white-ball fixtures.

“I don’t think us as a team would go there. It’s got nothing to do with the cricket – it’s in the past. For us, it’s business as usual, ” du Plessis was quoted as saying in The South African.

We’ve been trying new things

The Australian batting has been weakened owing to Smith and Warner’s absence and has become vulnerable, to say the least. However, Aaron Finch, Australia’s limited-overs skipper, is confident about getting the team gelled and build for a formidable side for the future.

“We’ve struggled with the bat for quite a while now and it’s up to us guys who get first go of it in Perth next Sunday against South Africa to start rewriting that last probably 18 months. I think that when you have a bit of change in the side, it’s about starting to build a really good dynamic and a really good chemistry within that side.

“We’ve been trying new things, we’ve been out in the nets for hours. You can’t question it from that point of view. It’s just about making sure that we start to build partnerships again,” an optimistic Finch mentioned.

Du Plessis’ men didn’t make an impressive start to the tour. They locked horns with the Prime Ministers XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. They were bowled out for 173 in 42 overs and subsequently, slumped to a defeat by four wickets.

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