‘No hard feelings’ after Mintgate

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis says he has ‘no hard feelings’ towards the fans that gave him some stick in the wake of ‘mintgate’.

With the Proteas winning the series two-one, losing the third Test in Adelaide, Du Plessis could afford to be gracious, and said the Oz fans were great in general.

He came under fire after a video showed him rubbing mint-tainted saliva onto the ball to shine it, and he was fined his entire Hobart match fee by the ICC.

He denied the charge, and lodged an appeal, but said after the third Test that he was not upset about the verbal abuse from fans.

Du Plessis said: “It was just the last couple of days where there was a little bit of huff and puff around.

“The Aussie public was great until this last week. I think that is just part of riding the wave of what has happened.

“So no hard feelings.”

He then went on to say how pleased he was to have won the series Down Under without the help of AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, both lost to injury.

Faf added of defying expectations: “Before the series, if you told the South African team you lose those two players, they would say we had no chance.

“The most pleasing thing is everyone in the team stepped up.

“There was not just one guy that we relied on through the series from a batting point of view … and our whole bowling unit performed at different stages.

“Our mission is successful. The last four days was not to plan but … it’s an incredible series to beat Australia 2-1.

“And to do it three times in a row (in Australia) is a huge effort.”

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