Twitterati lash out at Jos Buttler for calling Vernon Philander 'f**king knobhead'

Jos Buttler hasn’t had the best of Test series against South Africa by any stretch of the imagination. In the opening Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, he ended with scores of 12 and 22. At the Newlands in Cape Town, the 29-year-old didn’t have the best of times either. In both the innings, the Somerset-born got starts with scores of 29 and 23, but couldn’t convert the starts.

The Three Lions ended up winning the second Test by 189 runs and also managed to draw level in the series. However, Butler didn’t have the most memorable times in the game. Apart from his failures with the bat in hand, he also got himself entangled into a controversy. The swashbuckling cricketer was heard, using cuss words for veteran fast bowler Vernon Philander.

Jos Buttler abuses Vernon Philander

On the last day, the Proteas needed 312 runs to win with eight wickets in hand. Though the Brits came out trumps, there were phases when the hosts got under the skin of the visitors. Pieter Malan, the debutant, put his head down, scoring 84 runs off 288 balls before Sam Curran dismissed him. Quinton de Kock also fought hard, getting 50 runs off 107 balls with seven fours.

Coming to Buttler, he lost his cool when Philander came to bat. From behind the wicket, Buttler called Philander a ‘f**king knobhead’. Later Dale Steyn, who retired from Test cricket a few months ago, wrote in a post on Twitter that it was ‘loud and clear’. Buttler was assumed to have done it in order to put pressure on Vernon, who stayed put in the middle for as many as 51 balls.

Philander was the last wicket to fall as Ben Stokes got rid of him in the 138th over. The Proteas veteran picked up two wickets in the first innings before going wicketless in the second. A few days ago, he announced his retirement from international cricket and will now be playing for Somerset.

In the meantime, Twitterati isn’t quite happy with Buttler’s gesture towards Vernon. The users on social media bashed the English wicketkeeper for the unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Here is how Twitterati reacted: –