‘Unlucky’ SA captain Faf du Plessis brings teammate to toss for flipping coin

Toss is one part of cricket that is not in human hands. One can only aspire for the best and take the earliest advantage by winning the toss in a game and having a call to either bat or bowl. Captains around the world prefer to carry some lucky baggage with them to have a better fortune. However, what South Africa’s regular captain Faf du Plessis did recently was the highest of all and his effort did not go in vain.

It was in the first T20I between South Africa and Zimbabwe at Buffalo Park in East London where du Plessis was found bringing his deputy JP Duminy for the toss against Zimbabwean captain Hamilton Masakadza. Duminy flipped the coin and the outcome was against what the visiting captain had called: “head”. Both du Plessis and Duminy were ecstatic, especially the former, whose trick worked.

‘Captain should know his weakness’

After winning the toss, du Plessis said it is important for the captain to know his weakness and that’s why he brought Duminy as a “specialist coin tosser”. He also shared the video of the unique toss on his Instagram account and wrote: “Love what I do, important to have some fun along the way as well, especially in t20 cricket !! Might have started something here… @jpduminy the specialist coin tosser..”

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I Love what I do ,important to have some fun along the way aswell , especially in t20 cricket !! Might have started something here… @jpduminy the specialist coin tosser..🙈😉

A post shared by Faf du plessis (@fafdup) on Oct 11, 2018 at 12:57pm PDT

Du Plessis perhaps took encouragement from the fact that Duminy, who led South Africa in the first two ODIs, won the toss for them while he lost the toss in the third ODI that he captained. However, on the field, the toss outcomes made little difference as the Proteas won the three-game ODI series 3-0 and also the first T20I. Du Plessis did not play the first two ODIs because of injury.

The hosts won the first of the three T20Is by 34 runs after du Plessis elected to bat following Duminy’s winning flip. They put up 160 for 6 in 20 overs with debutant Rassie van der Dussen hitting 54 off 46 balls. The Zimbabweans were bowled out for 126 in reply, thanks to spinner Imran Tahir’s bamboozling 5 for 23.

Question was, however, raised whether Plessis’s act was as per the law. The two teams are scheduled to play their second T20I on Friday.

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.