New Delhi: The four-match Test series between South Africa and Australia which has already been nicknamed as the ‘bad-tempered series’ got marred further by another controversy on Wednesday.
Spicing up the Smith-Rabada saga, Proteas pacer Vernon Philander took a dig at Australian captain Steve Smith. In a tweet, Vernon termed Smith equal participant in the shoulder-brush incident.
"Steve Smith gave KG the shoulder. He could have avoided any contact but to me he is just as guilty. Trying some football skills to get a penalty??? Pity he didn't dive to top it off," the tweet which was later deleted read.
Facing backlash over the inflammatory tweet, Philander came up with the response asserting that his account was hacked.
The incident occurred on the first day of the second Test in Port Elizabeth. Celebrating his successful lbw appeal against Smith, Rabada got close to Smith screaming "Yes, Yes". Post the yelling, Rabada made shoulder contact with the Australian skipper.
The 22-year-old was charged with a Level 2 offence by the ICC and was slapped with a two-Test ban along with 50 percent of his match fees. Rabada has contested the charges saying the contact was unintentional.
In the two Tests played so far, numerous incidents of ICC code-of-conduct breach have taken place. Apart from the never ending on-field verbal jibes incidents of Lyon ball-drop, stairwell stoush between Warner- De Kock have been the unwanted highlights of the high-voltage series.