Australia annoyed by Faf du Plessis' surprising declaration

Australia admitted that they were taken aback by Faf du Plessis’ unexpected declaration on the first evening of the Adelaide Test. Steve Smith and Co was dumbfounded and left the field fuming as David Warner was not allowed to bat in his usual opening slot for spending time off the field.

Warner complained of shoulder pain during the late stages of South Africa’s innings but when Du Plessis heard that the southpaw needed to spend a further six minutes on the field to come out to bat in his usual position, du Plessis declared the innings. “I listened to the conversation he had with the umpires, one ear talking to the batter and one ear listening to him and then I heard he had six minutes left before he could bat again so I thought ‘let’s have a crack’,” du Plessis said.

Warner and Smith both protested with the umpire while leaving the field with du Plessis’ declaration coming earliest in terms of overs in the first innings of a Test unaffected by bad weather.

Josh Hazlewood who bowled brilliantly said of Warner, “He went off for some treatment towards the end and was off for too long,” “So they messed their timings up and he couldn’t bat straight away. Uzzy had to bat and adapted pretty well and we got through.”

“The guys were a little bit annoyed, especially Smithy and probably Uzzy who had to go out and bat, but it’s just one of those things. It rarely happens, but it happened today and the way Uzzy adapted to the situation he did a great job for us today.”

Hazlewood stated that it was Warner’s duty to make sure he wasn’t caught out in this way and an apology from the vice-captain is expected as a result.

“It’s probably the player himself,” he said. “You know the rules and he was just off the field for too long. He’ll hold himself accountable, that’s how Davey goes, so he’ll know he did the wrong thing, apologise to the group and especially Usman, and he’ll learn from it and hopefully it won’t happen again.”

As for du Plessis, Hazlewood could only doff his cap. “I think he might’ve had a rough idea, yeah,” he said. “He’s quite cagey like that, pulled the pin and declared and caught us out a little bit,” Hazlewood concluded.