“Is that a good advertisement for our format?” – Dean Elgar on the Gabba pitch.
Telford Vice / Cape Town
DEAN Elgar has slammed the Gabba pitch on which Australia beat South Africa in less than two days, and said he was ignored when he asked the umpires about the dangers of batting on the surface. But he stopped short of branding the conditions unsafe.
Australia completed their victory an hour after tea on Sunday; just five-and-a-half sessions into a match that was scheduled to end around sunset on Wednesday. The game was decided in 866 deliveries — the second fewest in the 355 men’s Tests that have been won and lost in Australia. South Africa were put in to bat and bowled out for 152 and 99. Australia made 218 and 35/4.
By stumps on Saturday, the soft, green, seaming pitch was already studded with divots — which hardened on Sunday to add inconsistent and sometimes steepling bounce to the sideways movement batters had to contend with throughout. Consequently most of Elgar’s post-match press conference focused on his thoughts on the pitch, starting with the first question.
“Let’s not waste any time,” Elgar said with a hollow laugh. “You’ve got to ask yourself — is that a good advertisement for our format? Thirty-four wickets in two days; a pretty one-sided affair I would say. We want to see the game go to four or five days.
“The nature of how it started to play, with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you’re on a hiding to nothing as a batting unit. Only three batsmen applied themselves half decently and scored runs. I don’t think that was a very good Test wicket.”
Travis Head’s 92 in the first innings proved the matchwinning batting performance in a game in which Kyle Verreynne’s 64 was the only other score higher than Temba Bavuma’s 38. Fifteen of the 34 dismissed batters faced 10 or fewer deliveries.
Had Elgar raised his concerns with the umpires, Chris Gaffaney and Rod Tucker? “I did ask the umpires,” he said. “When ‘KG’ got Head out down leg [on Sunday], I said, ‘How long does it go on for before it potentially is unsafe?’ Then Nortjé was bowling those short ones that were flying over our heads. I know the game was dead and buried. It was never to change or put a halt to the game, but that was where the umpires’ discretion comes into play; not us as players.”
Kagiso Rabada had Head caught behind with what became the eighth-last ball of the match, which ended with Anrich Nortjé’s bouncer sailing well over batter Cameron Green and wicketkeeper Verreynne. The ball went all the way to the boundary for five wides, the winning runs.
Did Elgar get an answer from the umpires? “No. There were only a handful of runs left [to get] at that stage, so maybe they thought I was just trying to take the mickey. But it’s not a bad reference point going forward to get a reply. I don’t see it changing anything, but there wasn’t a reply.”
Did he think the pitch was unsafe? “I’m not going to say it was unsafe or it wasn’t safe,” Elgar said, doubtless to avoid the insult of a fine being added to the injury that potentially awaited those who dared bat on the surface.
But he was happy to explain the challenge: “The edges of the divots start to get harder and they become more abrasive because the wicket starts drying out. Back home the wickets are also prone to creating those divots, and it becomes a handful. But generally that only happens later in the game, when those divots start playing quite a big role. This one seemed to start yesterday already.
“I’m not a curator and I wouldn’t know how to prepare a cricket pitch, but it was interesting to see how quickly this one actually did start divotting and how quickly the ball sped up; especially the new ball. Also today the older ball was flying through, which shouldn’t be really happening. The divots had a big role to play, especially with the sideways movement and then up and down. And then the ball that’s got that steep bounce, which is quite something to face.”
Asked what his players would do with their three bonus days off, Elgar said: “The guys know their games well enough, and hitting another 100 or 200 balls a day is not going to make you a better cricketer. It’s just one of those games where you’ve failed. I’d rather see the guys not do anything until we get to Melbourne [where the second Test starts next Monday]. Other guys might feel they need to go and do stuff, and I’m sure the coaching staff will give them the best opportunity to be ready for the next Test.”
What changes to their team might the South Africans envisage, what with Theunis de Bruyn and Heinrich Klaasen the spare batters in a squad that also includes uncapped pace threat Gerald Coetzee? “All options are on the table,” Elgar said. “But you still have to go away and give your batters the confidence and the positivity. The guys in the changeroom have played enough cricket to know that this was maybe one of those instances where … let’s be honest and let’s be real about what’s just happened. It’s not like our guys were throwing wickets away. We were getting absolutely jaffaed out really. And [Australia] bowled properly. You’ve got to take all of that into consideration.
“Coming into this game our batters were confident. We prepared bloody well and we played the warm-up game where most of the guys got good runs and time in the middle. So it’s not like the confidence is low. We just need to be realistic around what’s just happened, and try and rectify it. We do have extra days now where the guys need to tap into their mental spaces, which is your biggest enemy at the moment because you can really withdraw yourself from what’s happened instead of facing it and learning from it.”
Despite losing South Africa ended the match on a high — and with an eye on the last two Tests — by dismissing Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith and Head inside seven overs as Australia homed in on their nominal target.
“It was to try and see if we could open some old scars; purely bringing our intensity and maybe get them three or four down and those batters going into Melbourne with maybe a little bit less confidence,” Elgar said. “I guess it was one of the gameplans that worked out for us over the last two days. Can’t say there were many, but at least that one did.”
He hoped the performance of Rabada, who took 4/13 in the second innings, could “inspire our batting unit to get their heads right and knuckle down”.
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