Proteas captain Faf du Plessis received a hostile reception when he walked out to bat on Thursday when the Adelaide Oval crowd jeered him all the way to the crease.
Du Plessis, who has been fined 100% of his match fee for ball tampering during the second Test in Hobart, has been the centre of attention here in Australia leading up to this pink ball Test.
The 32-year-old has though professed his innocence even after being fined by the ICC, stating that he was only using saliva mixed with the sweet in his mouth to shine the ball.
"There's two ways of looking at it, either ball-shining or ball-tampering. For me, if you talk about ball-tampering, that is something that's wrong. It's picking the ball, scratching the ball.
"Shining is something that all cricketers would say is not in that same space. It is something all cricketers do and I think there will be a lot of emphasis after this incident on where the game is going, what the ICC is going to do about it. I don't believe shining is wrong. It's not like I was trying to cheat or anything. I was shining a ball and I see no problem with that."
At Wednesday’s pre-match conference Du Plessis was warned that he should expect an unwelcome greeting, but the skipper had hoped “cricketing sense would prevail”.
"I'm hoping that cricketing sense will be prevail. It's obviously something that if you are a cricketer and you understand cricket that this is not actually that big of a deal," Du Plessis had said.
Du Plessis was at the crease after earlier winning the toss and electing to bat. South Africa had already lost the wickets of opener Dean Elgar (5), Hashim Amla (5) and JP Duminy (5) and needed their captain to play an innings of substance.
Independent Media