What's new

Faf du Plessis and his match winning zipper

Indiafan

Indiafan

Senior T20I Player
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Runs
19,664
Post of the Week
8
After a fairly sedate (by their standards) performance in the first Test match, South African bowlers came back strong in the second and dismissed Pakistan for a paltry 99. The sweltering heat of the desert sun, the pressure of being 1-0 down, nothing could hold them down. They spewed fire and made the ball talk. So what was behind their comeback? Was it hard work, pep talk from the captain, or instructions from the coach? Surprisingly, the answer is, none of the above. We bring you the inside scoop on the unsung hero of the South African turn-around.

At first glance, the South African T20I captain and future leader is an unassuming, young man. Unlike the burly Graeme Smith, Faf du Plessis is not as physically intimidating or a dominating leader of men. But he possesses something which no other captain in the history of South Africa did, a magic zipper. If your team needs quick wickets to turn the tide of a match, there is no better man than Du Plesis to turn to. And he has always stood up (so to speak) for the team. We are not sure how exactly the whole thing works, but from what we hear, you just need to rub the ball on the zipper thrice and wish for a wicket. It has never failed so far. Smith even had a lengthy discussion with one of his bowlers who was too squeamish to take the ball after the magic zipper did it's work

One has to really question how much of behind the scene, unsung heroes, Du Plesis and his match winning zipper really are. Surely they have made a lot of contribution towards South Africa's march towards number 1? South Africa's fast bowlers are currently ranked no 1 and 2. Would this have been possible without a rub or two on the future captain's zipper every match? Do they get their fair due? Is Du Plesis's pant given the place of honor in the dressing room and only washed with special dry cleaning substance? Does the coach include them in their match strategy?

I would also like to remind cricket fans here that it's not always about just possessing a zipper. Everyone has a zipper, how many have a match-winning one? It still needs special talent and skills to use one and rub a ball on it just the right way. Too little and it might not work, too much and you might need to leave the field for a while. That is why Du Plesis is always the guy who is allowed to wear said pants and use the zipper when needed.

One can only hope, now that the world has seen the magic zipper in action, Du Plesis gets due credit. Will other countries imitate this? Will calls flood to his tailor asking for new pants with specialized zippers? Will England issue a special visa for his pants and make it a citizen? Will success go to the zipper's head? Surely sponsors will be queuing outside Du Plesis's laundry room soon? The possibilities are endless. "Don't let the stress pull you down, XXX drink will always keep you trussed up! XXX, what every zipper wants"

When contacted for comments, YKK, the world's leading zip manufacturer, said that this was surely not the intended use of the zipper and would make the warranty null and void
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A gentle caution for all to refrain from posting inappropriate comments or remarks
 
With all the zipper puns possible, very difficult, lol
 
Faf du Plesis and his match winning Zipper

Shameful stuff! There should be a heavy penalty for ball tampering. Very disgraceful stuff from South Africa!
 
Here's Faf's new team pic

Zippy.jpg
 
Last edited:
And here they are with Steyn and Kallis, with Faf having a good idea at a team meeting:

RainbowTV.jpg
 
Last edited:
Re: Faf du Plesis and his match winning Zipper

Fafs zipper should be judged man of the match without disputes :)))
 
After this match, Faf will be devoting more time to his DJ business.....

RAINBOW.jpg
 
Indiafan said:
but from what we hear, you just need to rub the ball on the zipper thrice and wish for a wicket. It has never failed so far. Smith even had a lengthy discussion with one of his bowlers who was too squeamish to take the ball after the magic zipper did it's work
Click to expand...

:))) :))) quality op
 
Beautifully written.
Great job, Indiafan.
Post of the Week, for me.
osee_bhai made me laugh like a little girl also.
 
That was an awesome article... especially about sponsorships. Should have added IPL contract in it too. :))) :)))
 
Faf du Plesis and his match winning Zipper

I apologise to Indiafan for having not read his work carefully. Surely it takes a lot of time to come up with such a piece and to be able to inject the humour into it like he has done above. If we don´t dedicate it any time to read it, it surely is a sad result.

The third, fourth and the fifth paragraphs were hilarious:)):)))! Fantastic work sir!

osee_bhai said:
BXbODtVCYAAHxY9.jpg
Click to expand...

Hilarious:)))!

On the whole thing, Faf du Plessis deserved a ban, surely. 50% fine of his match fee is a little too lenient I believe - the minimum punishment that he could get.
 
I'm trying this out in the next club match I play, I happen to own my own pair of trousers with specialized zippers, I think they'll do the job. This thread brings me motivation! :)
 
Can we also have a piece about Stuart Broad magic trainers? (Yeah, I still remember that)
 
the secret is revealed. India know what they have to do to conquer South Africa, they must steal the zipper ! :msd

Or better destroy it as it will be of no use to them :))
 
amazing read,indianfan...and robert,u too made this this thread one of the best ever on PP..
 
Ab devilliers is such a liar . Lied about this whole incident in the press conference. If you read Steyn's tweet today you will realise how they all lied about their own shenanigans.
Steyn too comes across as such a hypocrite .
 
Can’t believe he did not get punished severely for this in 2013. ICC needs to get its act together.
 
pakistanigoneaussie said:
Don’t worry I think Faf has universall forgiveness from all Pakistanis now
Click to expand...

Yes, the South Africans are on our side, along with the English. Both of them hate Undia and Australia as much as we do (only in cricketing terms, for the benefit of some over-zealous souls out there).
 
Bilal7 said:
Yes, the South Africans are on our side, along with the English. Both of them hate Undia and Australia as much as we do (only in cricketing terms, for the benefit of some over-zealous souls out there).
Click to expand...

I meant more for leading the world 11 to Pakistan. He makes more than a million a year in ipl and CSA salaries alone, so money clearly wasn’t the motivator in coming
 
pakistanigoneaussie said:
I meant more for leading the world 11 to Pakistan. He makes more than a million a year in ipl and CSA salaries alone, so money clearly wasn’t the motivator in coming
Click to expand...

Yeah, that is what I meant as well. South African and English cricket has helped Pakistan quite a bit over the last few years.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bilal7 said:
Yes, the South Africans are on our side, along with the English. Both of them hate India and Australia as much as we do (only in cricketing terms, for the benefit of some over-zealous souls out there).
Click to expand...

Except AB, he is an IPL sellout.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
South Africa are hardly champions of moral behaviour. So don't understand why Pakistan fans think they are. They have been involved in on the field issues in this current series and also match fixing issues in the past. They can hardly claim to be squeeky clean.
 
lmao this is good stuff [MENTION=3327]Indiafan[/MENTION]

must have been even more funny to read at the time
 
The contrast between a single player, rubbing the ball on a zipper and an entire touring side being involved in a scam, which used foreign objects, walkie-talkies and active planning during the break in play is like day and night. One is a spur of the moment incident which was rightfully punished, the other is a systematic, institutionalised form of cheating, which raises questions about similar meetings, similar planning and similar foreign objects being used by the Australian set up over the last several years.
 
Anyone who brings up a mint is delusional. The zipper, yes, that's a different game, but the mint? use a brain cell.
 
DU PLESSIS: 'BALL SHINING V BALL TAMPERING? ONE IS DEFINITELY MUCH MORE SERIOUS'
Click to expand...



Oh, so they call it ball shinning in your neck of the woods, glad you cleared it all up!

I bet he wouldn't mind if the next touring team beat them in a test and then they find out they acquired a magic zipper as well
 
Tim Paine has accused South Africa of ball tampering in the match after Australian cricket was rocked by a scandal of their own. Back in 2018, Australia were caught tampering with the ball with the use of sand paper and tape during during a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.

Australian cricket was left disgraced, with ex-captain Steve Smith and batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft all handed hefty bans after for their part in the episode. Smith was replaced by Paine as skipper and discussed the saga in his autobiography The Paid Price.

The rule-break was unearthed after a clip of Bancroft rubbing the ball against a piece of tape was panned across the big screens at Newlands. After a radio silence, Bancroft and Smith held a press conference where they admitted to their foul play.

The players at fault were then sent home from the tour, where they once again appeared in front of the world's media and apologised. During Smith's press conference address, the Aussie star broke down in tears as he was stripped of the captaincy.

Four years on though, Paine believes he saw the South Africans also tamper with the ball in the very next match, but the evidence was hidden by the TV director who exposed Bancroft. He wrote: "I saw it [tampering] happen in the fourth Test of that series.

"Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry on. I was standing at the bowlers' end in the next test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball.

"The television director, who had played an active role in catching out Cam [Bancroft], immediately pulled the shot off the screen. We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we'd been slaughtered and were convinced they'd been up to it since the first Test. But the footage got lost. As it would."

==

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has opened up on the infamous 'Sandpaper gate' that rocked Australian cricket, saying that the Proteas suspected Australia of ball-tampering long before the incident happened. Du Plessis conceded the revelations through his autobiography titled 'Faf: Through Fire', which is scheduled to be released to the public on October 28. Incidentally, during the fourth Test at Newlands, Cape Town, Australia batter Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball with sandpaper to make it swing in flight.

While Bancroft, due to his actions, was suspended for nine months, the then captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were also banned from competitive cricket for a year, having played a part in the plot.

Du Plessis, in his biography, claimed that the Proteas suspected Australia of ball tampering from the first Test of the series, which was played

"During the first Test in Durban, the Australian pace attack had got the ball to reverse insanely. Mitchell Starc claimed nine wickets and, although I regard him as one of the best proponents of reverse-swing bowling I have ever seen or faced, those deliveries in Durban were borderline unplayable. He would come in around the wicket with a badly deteriorated ball and get it to hoop past us. Our balls had also reversed but not nearly as much as theirs," Fox Sports quoted Faf as writing.

The 38-year-old further revealed that the South African players and management watched the second Test, through binoculars during Australia's bowling.

"We suspected that someone had been nurturing the ball too much to get it to reverse so wildly, and we watched the second Test at St George's through binoculars, so that we could follow the ball more closely while Australia was fielding. When we noticed that the ball was going to David Warner quite often - our changing room must have looked like a birdwatching hide as we peered intently through our binoculars. There was a visible difference between how Mitchell Starc got the ball to reverse in the first Test in Durban and the final Test in Johannesburg. We now know that there was an obvious reason for that," he added.

Notably, Starc was named player of the first Test, having returned figures of 5/34 and 4/75.

Australia had won the first Test by 118, but lost the four-match series 1-3.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had faced allegations of ball-tampering in 2013 during a Test against Pakistan in Dubai and he was sanctioned for using the zippers on his trousers to change the condition of the ball. Now, the right-handed batter has revealed how he swore off touching the ball for some years after in the aftermath of that incident. He also revealed how he became self-conscious whenever the ball was thrown to him on the field.

"I went through a very tough time around what happened in Dubai against Pakistan to the point where I also had to say, 'Listen, I will never touch a cricket ball again because it's not something I want to go through again'. So, there was a period where the ball came to me and I was like 'no' and I'd just get rid of it, because you're so aware of that. If you make a mistake, I don't judge anyone who goes through that," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Faf du Plessis as saying.

Faf du Plessis has also backed David Warner to lead Australia. It is important to mention that it was under the leadership of Faf when the infamous Sandpaper Gate happened during the Cape Town Test in 2018. The incident saw Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft being reprimanded for their involvement in the ball-tampering saga.

In the aftermath of that scandal, Cricket Australia served one-year bans for both Smith and Warner and also said that Warner would never be able to lead Australia.

"I never throw stones - I point the finger back at myself probably harder than I do at anyone else, and I'm no glass house. So I think Davey has certainly done his time, he's served a very, very hard penalty that a lot of guys, myself included, doing things wrong as well, didn't get even close to the penalty that Smith, Bancroft and Warner got," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Faf du Plessis as saying.

"In terms of would he be able to be let back into, do it? Yes. I've certainly seen him in the IPL being captain of one of the franchises there and having a successful campaign," he further stated.

NDTV
 
Why is there a captaincy debate for a 36 year old? He'll probably retire within a year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

FearlessRoar
[PICTURE] Muhammad Bulbulia: South Africa's next star in the making?
Replies
5
Views
170
sweep_shot
sweep_shot
FearlessRoar
  • Poll Poll
Can Pakistan defeat South Africa in the three-match ODI series (2024)?
Replies
5
Views
228
BouncerGuy
BouncerGuy
Savak
Mohammad Rizwan needs to be held accountable for his match losing knocks and brain fades
2 3
Replies
164
Views
2K
Asif321
Asif321
BouncerGuy
[PICTURE] George Linde - South African all-rounder
Replies
6
Views
168
sindhiboy
S
Hitman
South Africa suspected Australia were ball tampering before Sandpapergate Test match: Faf du Plessis
Replies
7
Views
943
BunnyRabbit
B
Back
Top