What AB de Villiers had to say when South Africa were accused of ball tampering

Ben Stokes took the dismissal in a very sporting way, despite its controversial nature.

The ‘spirit of cricket’ is often a subject of great debate, and the recent Ben Stokes controversy has brought the issue to the fore once again. Australian captain Steve Smith has come in for quite a bit of criticism following the incident, and the whole episode has somewhat tarnished the previously spotless image of Smith.

But is any cricketer truly blameless? Not many may remember this, but even a player as highly regarded as AB de Villiers has faced his fair share of controversies. The South African was once at the centre of another incident that involved a strange decision from the umpires, when his team got charged for ball-tampering in the second Test of a three-match series against Pakistan in Dubai in 2013.

The Proteas were punished for tampering with the ball after umpires Ian Gould and Rod Tucker noticed its deteriorated condition after tea-time. They spoke to Graeme Smith before the 31st over and decided to change the ball, following which Gould signalled the addition of five runs to Pakistan’s total in the form of extras. To add more insult to injury, Faf du Plessis was seen rubbing the ball over his zipper in television replays.

De Villiers spoke with the press after the day’s play, claiming that his side were not cheaters.

"Honestly, we're not the team that scratches the ball," De Villiers said, as quoted on NDTV. "We don't cheat, it's as simple as that. I know Faffy very well, he's the last man to try anything like that."

The South African ODI team captain also seized the moment to defend his team-mate, who was subject to a lot of criticism following his actions in the TV replays. He said that the middle order batsman was only shining the ball and didn’t mean to tamper with it, while also going on to add how he was baffled with the findings of the umpires.

"It's not an easy job, I thought he did it very well," De Villiers said about Du Plessis.

"There was no talk about it, no warnings and nothing, it was just out of nowhere.” he added.

South Africa dismissed Pakistan for just 99 runs in the first innings and went on to score 517 runs to gain a huge lead. They ended the match by restricting their opposition to 326 to win by an innings and 92 runs.