Dean Elgar produced a dream spell of left-arm spin bowling for a part-timer (4/22) and then battled 75 minutes for his unbeaten 13 to play a crucial role in South Africa keeping their nose slightly in front in the opening Test here. Having bowled and batted, he was perhaps in the best position to describe the wicket and the southpaw termed it “not a very good cricket wicket.”
“I don’t think it’s a very good cricket wicket, (but) it is my personal opinion,” he said when asked for his honest assessment of the pitch. “It is a result wicket which is expected when you come here. But kudos to India, they are obviously going to prepare wickets like these against us, I'm sure. And we know coming here, it was going to be very different from what we are used to. So it's not a very good cricket wicket but it is a result wicket which can go either way,” he stated.
Elgar was surprised at the extent of the deterioration of pitch just after a day’s play and hoped the Indian strategy would backfire. “It wasn’t easy (to bat),” he noted. “We sort of expected it to play like that but we didn't expect it to crumble as what it has already. It was hard graft. It was right up there with the hardest ever Test cricket I've had. It was hard work and we can see that the Indians are used to putting the opposition under pressure when their tails are up. Let’s hope that it can backfire and turn out to be a great victory for us,” he remarked.
The left-handed opener agreed with Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar that hosts’ total of 201 was worth more than what it appears to be. “I would say that. It is just because of the nature of the wicket. The outfield is another thing. It is fast but it is difficult to generate pace on the ball while batting and it’s definitely going to be a challenge for us.”
When posed that if some countries could have grassy wickets and then why not challenging turners, Elgar said: “Well I'm sure it has its flip side as well. I would think that generally when cricket is played on a green wicket, it lasts longer than it does on a spinning wicket. But I’m not really talking too much about this wicket.”
Elgar felt it was a tougher wicket than the ones he encountered in Sri Lanka. “It is a lot different. It’s like a day four wicket now, the way I see it. I batted on day one in Sri Lanka most days, so it is a lot different.”
