The situation of the pitch could have been addressed sooner: Dean Elgar

A gutsy unbeaten 86 from opener Dean Elgar couldn’t help South Africa whitewash the tourists as Faf du Plessis’ men folded for 177 runs on the fourth day of the third Test match. It was the first instance when 120 out of 120 wickets were taken in a 3-Test series. Proteas pacer Vernon Philander was named the man of the series for his outstanding bowling throughout the series.

The pacer scalped a total of 15 wickets in the series and contributed with the bat as well. In the post-match conference, Elgar addressed the unfortunate scenario surrounding the uneven nature of the pitch. The left-hand batsman said that the players had no say on the issue and it was completely in the hands of the officials.

“Last night was unfortunate that we had to go off in that period and it was unfortunate that someone had to get hit on the face for actions to be taken,” he said. “But those actions are out of the players’ hands so we had no say in the matter.” Elgar said.

The wicket didn’t play great: Elgar

On being asked whether the game should have been called off due to the deadly blows suffered by the batters, Elgar said:

“I do think so, yes. On day three the wicket didn’t play great. Faf (du Plessis) mentioned earlier in his presser that batters got hit a lot more than in usual Test matches. I do think if there was a period to call if off it was sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, it took an incident of being hit in the head, where we could have had another incident of what happened in Australia. I think there is a bit of red tape that guys need to address and maybe do it sooner.

“I know that people want to watch Test cricket the whole day, but we’re also human beings. We’re not just machines, we’re not just going to take blows and accept putting our bodies on the line. It was unfortunate that it had to go into that depth, but I do think the game or the situation of the pitch could have been addressed sooner.” he added.

Elgar on the lethal delivery

On the delivery by Jasprit Bumrah that went on hit his helmet grill, Elgar said that he couldn’t have played it better. The third day’s play witnessed a premature end due to the incident.

“I can’t think I would have played it any better because if it was that short on a wicket with bounce, it would have gone way over my head and at least given me some time to get out of the way. It’s a freak moment and thankfully the umpires had sanity about the incident.” he concluded.