'It won't reverse that much here' - du Plessis

The week leading up to the Hobart Test has been dominated by talk of contrasting success with reverse swing. Australia, through Josh Hazlewood, have made clear their envy of South Africa's ability to get the ball moving. South Africa, through Dean Elgar. have admitted their attack enjoys the reverse-swinging ball but distanced themselves from having any special ability to get the ball to scuff up.

Now Faf du Plessis has rendered the debate irrelevant, with his verdict that he does not think reverse-swing will come into play in Hobart.

"Perth was really dry, the wicket was hard. That second new ball we took on the last day, it was three overs in and there were big chunks out of the ball," du Plessis said. "Here will be different. It's lush, it's green, it's soft, it's wet. It will seam and swing, it won't reverse that much."

Rain is forecast for the first three days of the match but on the off chance things dry up, du Plessis said he believed Australia were just as capable of working on the ball. He knows as much from personal experience, having faced a reverse-swinging ball as early as the 25th over in Perth.

"To say it was only for us is definitely not true," du Plessis said. "I faced a brilliant spell from Starc, bowling around the wicket, reversing the ball a hell of a lot. It was extremely difficult. I think it was exactly split down the middle 50-50 in terms of reverse.

"We were watching the first innings and they got the ball to reverse in the 25th over. I was quite impressed. I was trying to see how they were doing that because it meant they were getting something right. They were getting it to go early."

The difference, according to du Plessis, was in how the two batting line-ups fared. "We had batters that were in and batted for long periods of time," he said. "When you've got big partnerships, it just looks easier. I remember in the second innings I came in and the first ball nipped and swung and I was like, 'What is going on here? These guys have got a partnership of about 300, it should be a lot easier than this'.

"If you get a wicket, reverse-swing will always be more difficult for guys coming in. That's a fact. They just lost more wickets, that's why it was a little bit harder for them."

But now that the series has moved on, du Plessis does not want to dwell too much on reverse-swing and focus instead on seam movement and conventional swing, which will come into play at the Bellerive Oval. "I think, to be really honest, it's been blown out of proportion a little bit," he said.