'F**king Knobhead' - Jos Buttler sledges Vernon Philander with a barrage of abusive words in the second Test

The enthralling encounter between England and South Africa progressed in the final day after the visitors set a target of 438 for the Faf du Plessis-led side. It was an uphill task for the Proteas side to chase down a massive total on the fifth day, especially after losing wickets at regular intervals. After the opening duo of Pieter Malan and Dean Elgar stitched a crucial 71-run opening partnership, none of the middle-order batsmen was successful to play stable knock for their side.

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock emerged as a sole warrior for his side after the left-hander scored a half-century. However, he couldn’t prolong his innings after getting dismissed off Joe Denly. Meanwhile, the visitors are doing their best to demoralize the South African tail by going for the ‘sledging’ route. There have been multiple instances where wicketkeepers were caught abusing batsmen in order to break their concentration.

As the match is currently in its latter stage, England’s wicketkeeper Jos Buttler was spotted abusing Vernon Philander, with an objective of finishing off the match as early as possible. Buttler called Philander a ‘F**king Knobhead’ and followed it up with a barrage of abusive words. “F**king knobhead, get past that f**king gut,” Buttler was caught saying on the stump-mic while sledging Philander.

Plenty of tension at Newlands. Buttler calls Philander a 'Fucking Knobhead' and follows it up with a barrage of F words #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/ct1KRUj5nX

— Gav Joshi (@Gampa_cricket) January 7, 2020

Jos Buttler 1-0 Vernon Philander “fucking knobhead, get past that fucking gut” #SAvsENG pic.twitter.com/4otudxy0uQ

— Will Christophers (@wjcchippy92) January 7, 2020

Vernon Philander is set to retire after the ongoing Test series

Philander, who is set to retire after the ongoing series, is currently battling out in the middle against the English batting force. England are in a formidable position to clinch the second Test of the four-match series. After South Africa clinched the victory in the first Test of the series, Joe Root and Co are on the cusp of levelling the series.

Furthermore, it will be the last Test series where the world will witness Philander donning the Proteas jersey. In a career that spanned over more than 12 years, Philander made his ODI debut against Ireland in 2007. The right-hander has donned the coloured jersey for South Africa in 30 matches where he has gathered 151 runs and 41 wickets. Philander was recently seen playing for Cape Town Blitz under the leadership of Quinton de Kock in the MSL 2019.

Watch: Irfan Pathan’s interview post his retirement