Proteas’ ball work was legal: Harris

Teammates have distanced themselves from David Warner’s controversial comments regarding the reverse swing South Africa generated in the second Test.

Australian quick Ryan Harris attempted to downplay Warner’s suggestion Australia should ask the umpires about the legality of Proteas wicketkeeper AB de Villiers using his glove to “wipe the rough side every ball”.

“I’ve got no doubt what they did was fine, otherwise the umpires and the match referee would have done something,” Harris said.

“They’ve obviously looked after the ball a lot better than us, and if there’s anything illegal about it I’m sure we would have heard about it by now.”

The issue has dominated the lead-up to the three-Test series decider at Newlands in Cape Town, which starts on Saturday.

Warner’s past off-the-cuff colourful remarks in the series have been viewed internally by the Proteas and Cricket South Africa as harmless.

But they have taken great offence to his latest line, with coach Russell Domingo warning it had his team fired up for the third Test.

“It’s a bit disappointing when guys throw those kind of accusations around,” Domingo said.

“We’ve added 10 per cent to our motivation levels after those comments.

“We pride ourselves on playing the game as honestly and openly as possible.

“We’re very motivated by the comments he made, so it’s probably good for us.”

It’s expected traditional swing and seam movement will play more of a role in the clash at Newlands than reverse-swing.

But Harris said his teammates would be working hard to make sure they do everything possible to allow the ball to reverse.

“We don’t know whether it reverses or not here but we just have to make sure we look after it better with less guys touching the ball and less moisture getting into it,” he said.

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