South Africa Test captain, Dean Elgar revealed how the reactions from the Indian players after his DRS call helped his team to win the Cape Town Test and seal a historic series win over India. Elgar said that his team got a window period to reduce the deficit in the third Test following Team India’s on-field outburst on the DRS call on Thursday. Elgar’s LBW decision by umpire Marais Erasmus was overturned after HawkEye showed the ball’s trajectory going over the stumps.
The DRS decision led to tempers going high for the Indian players along with his deputy KL Rahul and senior offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin mocking the South African broadcasters ‘SuperSport” on the stump microphone. Chasing 212 in tough conditions of Cape Town, South Africa were 60 for one in the 21st over when Elgar got the reprieve, but with the Indian camp getting involved in the DRS controversy, the hosts went on to score 40 runs in the next eight overs.
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Talking about the incident, Dean Elgar said, “That obviously gave us a little bit of a window period, especially yesterday (Thursday) for us to score a little bit freer and obviously, chip away at the deficit that we needed or the target that we needed. It worked out well in our hands, it played nicely into our hands. For a period of time, they actually forgot about the game and they were challenging a bit more of the emotional side of what Test cricket has to offer.”
Asked about the controversy, Dean Elgar said: “Loved it. It was obviously maybe a team that was under a little bit of pressure and things weren’t going the way which they obviously were quite used to of late. We still had to execute our skills with the bat (on day three and four) knowing that the wicket was playing a bit in the bowlers’ favor and we needed to be extra disciplined out there and execute our basics.”
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South Africa had started the series with a huge loss of 113 runs in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion where they had never lost. So Elgar took upon the responsibility to help his team to make a comeback with some “hard chats” with his teammates, who responded well.
Asked about the change room conversations, the Proteas skipper said: “I think that ties into the conversations I had with the team prior to the second game. Guys taking responsibility and valuing their wicket a lot more. A few soft dismissals and lapses of concentration can hinder your series and ultimately, that’s what got us the loss in the first game.”
After losing the first Test, it took a lot of character from the hosts to make a comeback and Dean Elgar showed the way with his unbeaten knock of 96 to chase down 240 to level the series at Wanderers.
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Talking about the turn-around, Dean Elgar said, “The momentum is something that we gained from Wanderers. Another thing is confidence, especially from our batter point of view. But showing the guys that these guys are beatable. They’re also human beings. We are human beings playing a bloody tough sport. You need to get that confidence within your setup. I’d say momentum and confidence is a big thing that we’ve gained out of the Wanderers victory.”
