South Africa’s opening batsman Dean Elgar took the charge of the team when his fellow batsmen failed in the ongoing second and final Test against Sri Lanka in Johannesburg.
Conditions at the Wanderers were not good for batting at all being among the more difficult places to bat on in the world, but it was the 33-year-old who tested himself and cracked his 13th Test hundred to took the Proteas’ total to 302 and help the side to take a first-innings lead of 145 over Sri Lanka.
The left-hander had gone on the bed for the first time in his 112 Test innings with shouldering the responsibility of steering his team into a strong position apart from being just 8 runs short from his first century in the last 15 months being no out on 92 on Day 2 of the ongoing Johannesburg Test.
Well, the opener didn’t think much and had a glass of wine and did the job for South Africa, scoring 127 to take South Africa to a strong position against Sri Lanka at Wanderers’ tough surface.
During the course of his innings, Dean also completed 4000 runs in Test cricket and became the 10th South African to achieve the feat after Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, Daryll Cullinan, and Faf Du Plessis.
Elgar said after the end of the day’s play: “I had a glass of wine, and that made me sleep very well. I didn't feel anything; I didn't feel anxious. And I woke up nice and early as well thinking I might not wake up to my alarm. But no, I didn't feel too nervous starting today's play.”
On batting at tough Wanderers, he said: “I want to score runs on any pitch, but if you're playing at this level you're always going to be up against either a very good bowling unit or a tough wicket to bat on or both," he said.
"At the Wanderers, there's quite a lot of seam movement and the weather allows swing in the air. We had both of those elements against us. But it's always good to challenge yourself.”
Dean continued, “You prepare so hard on various technical and mental aspects, things that people don't really think about; the external [factors] of this game. It's nice to put yourself through those challenges and you come out the other end of the tunnel and you've done relatively well for your team.
That's all you can ask. The nature of the pitches we're playing on, especially now, it's almost like when you come in to bat you've really got to be on the ball. Maybe, mentally, we relax a little bit. Maybe we don't trust our technique and we need to be more assertive. If you apply yourself for a lengthy period of time, you really leave well and you trust your defense, the pitch will start flattening out. You shouldn't be playing loose or rash shots. You need to stay in your bubble.”
He signed off by saying, “But we do need to take conditions into account, and there were very good balls bowled. South Africa isn't an easy place to bat, especially when new batters come in. They say it's a batter's game but I don't know about that.”
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
