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Cricket: De Villiers upset at umpire questions over ball

De Villiers upset at umpire questions over ball

South Africa captain AB de Villiers was disappointed the umpires asked him about the condition of the ball during their one-day international defeat to England.

The Proteas suffered a two-run defeat at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday, England taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Umpires Chris Gaffaney and Rob Bailey enquired about the condition of the ball with De Villiers, who felt they had implied South Africa may have altered it.

South Africa Test captain Faf du Plessis was fined in November for ball tampering, a controversy erupting on their tour of Australia after he appeared to use saliva to shine the ball while sucking on a sweet.

De Villiers said: "The umpires felt the condition of the ball changed, in a way making me feel we were responsible as a team.

"I was quite upset about that. It's done and dusted now.

"Nothing happened, there were no fines given or anything like that.

"I expressed I was quite upset about it.

"I told the umpires we had nothing to do with the condition of the ball. No further steps were taken and we move on.

"Generally there is a warning or a fine, but none of that happened. That tells me they realised we were innocent in this case.

"I honestly think it was just a bad ball, which happens sometimes, the leather comes off sometimes.

"Unfortunately, the umpires didn't agree with that."