Watch: Michael Vaughan conducts scientific research in support of Faf du Plessis

Faf du Plessis and the ‘Lollygate’ controversy have been in the spotlight for the past few days. Ever since the South African skipper was charged by the ICC for ball-tampering, the cricketing fraternity has been quite upset. None of the current and the former cricketers seem to be agreeing with ICC’s logic over the issue.

While everyone had their opinion in support of Faf du Plessis, former England skipper Michael Vaughan decided to handle the matter bit differently, through a scientific approach. Vaughan, one of the cheekiest commentators around at the moment, decided to check the fact with some actual experiments and not just by talks. The ‘Lollygate’ perhaps brought out the best of Michael Vaughan sarcasm so far.

The experiment was simple. All Vaughan wanted to find out was whether ‘mint saliva’ helped the ball swing more or not. He Indian volunteers by his side who helped him in this research. He used an orange, an apple and a lemon to rub the mint saliva on and asked the participants to bowl with them.

The first participant was given an orange rubbed with mint saliva and was asked to bowl with the aim of hitting a distant tree. The man let one go and Vaughan expressed his displeasure on not witnessing the orange show any movement in the air. The next two participants were given an apple and a lemon respectively and were asked to do the same. The result – the fruits didn’t show any movement at all.

While the video showed Vaughan in the funny scheme of things, the former skipper cheekily took a dig at the Australians towards the end. He went on to say, “Australia needs to look in the mirror and work a bit on their technique.” He also went on to say that Australia’s struggle wasn’t because of the “mint-gate” issue and claimed that they should be concentrating more on their batting technique.

Controversy erupted yesterday after the International Cricket Council (ICC) charged South African skipper Faf du Plessis for ball-tampering. Du Plessis, who is leading the side in the absence of AB de Villiers came under the scanner for using “lollipop” saliva to change the condition of the ball in the Hobart Test. Consequently, an investigation was carried out and Du Plessis was charged under Article 2.2.9 of the ICC Code of Conduct, according to which du Plessis has “changed the condition of the ball”.

The cricketing fraternity has come in defense of South Africa’s stand-in Test captain Faf du Plessis, who has come under the scanner for an alleged ball-tampering incident.

Watch: Michael Vaughan conducts scientific research in support of Faf du Plessis