South Africa vs Australia: Steve Smith has his say on Warner-De Kock altercation

The first Test match between Australia and South Africa has been done and dusted as the visitors took the required final wicket on the fifth day. Josh Hazlewood ended the proceedings by pinning Quinton de Kock in front of the stumps and won his team the game by 118 runs. More than the victory though, the ugly altercation between David Warner and De Kock on the fourth day was in the news. However, the Australian captain Steve Smith has expressed his opinion now after the completion of the match.

The match was going close when De Kock and Aiden Markram were involved in a partnership and the tempers flared between the players in the second session The things took an ugly turn when Warner was attempting to run over the wicket-keeper batsman while going for the tea break in the tunnel. His teammates stopped him even as De Kock was left shocked. The CCTV footage of the same has gone viral since then which has marred a sensational victory of Australia

Quinton got quite personal

Steve Smith cleared in the post-match press conference about the incident happened between the two cricketers. He informed the reporters that Quinton De Kock got personal towards Warner. “Quinton got quite personal and provoked an emotional response from Davey. As far as I am aware we didn’t get personal toward Quinton,” he said. He also pointed out that no one can get into personal life of anyone and the banter should be kept limited to on-field exchanges.

“Those things on, you can’t be getting into someone’s personal life like that. You can’t be getting into someone’s personal life in my opinion. Obviously now it is in the hands of the officials. It’s just about playing in the spirit of the game, we are men playing a competitive sport … at times we need to pull things back,” the Australian skipper added.

The ICC is looking into the matter and the verdict on the same is expected to come soon.

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