SA captain Dean Elgar has insisted that the crushing 113-run defeat to India in the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion will not affect their confidence going into the second match at the Wanderers on Monday.
Elgar was reflecting on this defeat where the Proteas’ familiar top-order batting collapse reared its ugly head again and there were no strong partnerships to take the game to India during the four days.
They head to the Bullring for the second match already under pressure because defeat in Johannesburg will see India wrap up the series with the third match in Cape Town to spare.
Here in Centurion, where India finally registered their first at this venue, Proteas batters were completely dominated by the relentless fast bowlers Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur.
We still had a relatively good run over the past three months where we had three games and won two
— SA captain Dean Elgar
Shami, Bumrah, Siraj and Thakur accounted for the 18 SA wickets that fell in the match with spinner Ravichandran Ashwin taking the other two in the second innings.
“I don’t think we are going to lack any confidence going into Johannesburg,” said Elgar during his post match press conference yesterday. He added that they will have a proper postmortem.
“It’s never nice losing a game, especially when you know what actually went wrong. It is difficult to correct those mistakes during the game but hopefully building up to the second Test at the Wanderers we are going to have time to reflect and learn about what’s happened.
“I don’t think it’s going to dent our confidence going forward, we still had a relatively good run over the past three months where we had three games and won two.
“We have to utilise those good energies that we have had, we will definitely sit down and break up the game as a group and we will definitely come back harder. It is what I expect our guys to do anyway.”
To be able to get back to winning ways, Elgar agreed that the batting department must improve as the Proteas only scored 197 and 191 in their two innings.
On the other hand, India scored 501 (327 and 174) runs in their two innings and they set SA a mammoth target of 305 to win which proved to be a bridge too far as the Proteas fell short by 113 runs before tea on Thursday.
“You need runs to compete, safe to say that we didn’t execute in our first innings and the nature of Test cricket is that you have to compete with the new ball.”
Faced with the must-win situation next week, Elgar said they will take positives from the defeat which was anchored by a scintillating first innings century by Indian opener KL Rahul who was named the player of the match.
“There are a lot of learning points for us, the basics of the game still apply and I don’t think we had that with regard to the batting point of view. Obviously on day one we started reasonably OK and then we brought it back after lunch which was a massive plus point for us.
“We almost bought ourselves on level pecks but we let it go and I think the run rate was a little bit too high for us to try to manage it.”
It’s never nice losing a game, especially when you know what actually went wrong
— SA captain Dean Elgar
During the four days of the match — Monday was washed out — Temba Bavuma was the best batter with 87 runs and he was followed by Elgar with 78 and Quinton de Kock with 55.
It is also worth mentioning that Proteas had Elgar out for just one run in the first innings and Aiden Markram and Wiaan Mulder were also both dismissed having scored one run in the second innings.
With ball in hand, Lungi Ngidi ended with eight wickets, followed by Rabada with seven while debutant Marco Jansen, who contributed 32 runs, ended with five wickets to his name.
Elgar said he is not in a position to comment on possible changes going into the Wanderers match.
“There hasn’t been a lot of time for us to have these conversations between myself, the coaching staff and selectors. I can’t touch on who potentially could come in or what is our next viable team for instance.
“But as far as I am concerned, everyone is fit within the squad, I know our off-spinner Subrayen had a little niggle but he is fit again.”
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