Du Plessis surprised at lack of action in Smith DRS-gate

Following the DRS-gate during the second Test, Kohli stopped just short of calling Smith a cheat for his act of looking to the dressing room for advice on his DRS decision. Later, Smith apologised for the incident, saying it was a 'brain fade' on his part.

The BCCI lodged an official complaint with the ICC before withdrawing it in a bid to defuse the situation.Du Plessis felt both Smith and Kohli's actions were more serious than the allegations of ball-tampering lodged against him during the Australia series for which he was charged by the ICC.

"I was [surprised that no one was charged] purely from the reason of what I went through for something I feel was a lot smaller and a lot less... whatever you want to call it. So yes, surprised with that," du Plessis was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

The South Africa skipper, though, didn't want to be drawn into the Kohli-Smith saga, but exuded confidence that the current series between New Zealand and South Africa will continue to be played in the right spirit.

"Us and New Zealand are very similar in the way we play," du Plessis said. "We respect each other on and off the field and we play a similar brand of cricket. We don't see that the way you carry on off the field will have an effect on the outcome.

"When you play a team like India and Australia that can happen and it's easy to see how that can blow up. For me it has been good to be on the other side for a bit and to see how things unfold. It would have been interesting to see how the Australian media would have reacted to me doing that."