Du Plessis caught rubbing saliva from mint onto ball

Johannesburg [South Africa], Nov. 16 (ANI): South Africa stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis has been caught on camera while trying to deliberately shine the ball with his mint during the second Test against Australia at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. In one of the footages, Du Plessis is seeing chewing on a mint in his mouth, licking his finger on the mint before repeatedly shining and rubbing the ball, reported Sport24. The footage shows the incident which took place during the 54th over of Australia's second inning when the Steve Smith-led side was at 150 for 5 on Day Four. The incident occurred during the 54th over where Australia sat at 150 for 5 trailing by 91, which was in the midst of an Australia's batting collapse on day four. Wicketkeeper-batsman Peter Nevill edged the following ball to JP Duminy off the bowling of Kagiso Rabada. According to Cricket Australia's website, Law 42.3 of the MCC's Laws of Cricket states that a fielder may polish a ball, "provided that no artificial substance is used." The stand-in skipper was warned in the first Test as well for deliberately bouncing the ball along the ground to rough it up. Du Plessis took the Proteas to an unassailable 2-0 Test series lead by beating Australia on Tuesday by an innings and 80 runs. It should be noted that this is not the first time that the 32-year-old batsman was has been caught doing something with the ball. In 2013, he was fined 50 percent of the match during the second Test against Pakistan for rubbing the ball with his trouser zipper. (ANI)