Other Proteas need to show Elgar’s grit
Dean Elgar carried his bat for 118 against England, scoring 55 percent of South Africa’s runs.
|||Patrick Compton
DURBAN: Elgar is a great English name. Think of Pomp and Circumstance and the Enigma Variations as the soundtrack of empire. But on this occasion we’re talking up Dean Elgar of Welkom, not Edward Elgar of Broadheath.
The gritty Free Stater has rarely played better than he did yesterday as he carried his bat for 118, scoring 55 percent of South Africa’s runs. He is the first Proteas opener to achieve this since fellow leftie Gary Kirsten in 1997 against Pakistan in Faisalabad.
Whether his heroics are in a losing cause, time will tell, but the nuggety left-hander certainly offered a glowing example of how Test cricket should be played to his fragile fellow batsmen.
“Any time you reach three figures for your country it’s special,” said the opener diplomatically. “But yes it was right up there with my best innings.
“Opening the batting’s not the easiest thing in cricket. In fact it’s the toughest part of the game. That’s my opinion anyway.”
Elgar also revealed that he been congratulated on his innings by a man whose opinion he would naturally cherish, former SA captain Graeme Smith.
“He said how excited he felt for me, and that he felt he was batting out there with me. We’re very similar in character in the way we show a little bit of, you know ... I want to say the word but I can’t! Basically he said that he appreciated what I’d done.”
Meanwhile, on an otherwise gloomy day for South Africa, Dale Steyn’s fitness has yet to be assessed. The fast bowler left the field with a sore right shoulder and scans have proved inconclusive. Team doctor Dr Mohammed Moosajee confirmed it wasn’t a tear and that it was being treated as a muscle spasm.
“Dale will bowl in the nets tomorrow morning and if he gets through that, he’ll bowl in the match. After that, further assessment will take place after this Test before we make a call on whether he can play in Cape Town,” he said.
South African fans will be holding thumbs.
Dr Moosajee’s final contribution to the press conference was to explain why the ball was changed after Alex Hales hit Dane Piedt for six in the 16th over of the England innings.
The ball was returned and the umpires initially deemed it fit for purpose, but when South Africa started to get some decent reverse swing, they changed their minds.
“We have to accept the judgment of the match officials who said the ball suffered ‘unnatural wear and tear’,” said the good doctor.
It could have been the break that South Africa needed to get back into the match, but so far it hasn’t been that kind of game for the hosts.
This is an old-fashioned Test match in which hard work, discipline and intense concentration pay off. And so far it is England, not South Africa, who are exemplifying those virtues.
The difference between the two sides finally made itself apparent yesterday after two days of close, see-sawing cricket.
The numbers are clear enough. First England dismissed South Africa for 214, securing a first innings lead of 89, then they built on that lead by reaching 172/3 at the close in their second innings. That translates into an overall lead of 261,which already seems significant given the nature of the slow, occasionally uneven and sometimes fickle Kingsmead pitch where batsmen have had to work hard for their runs.
England’s Nick Compton proved on Saturday that there is no substitute for hard graft on such a surface, and yesterday Elgar underlined the fact.
It’s just as well that he did, because few of his fellow batsmen were on the same wavelength as the gritty left-hand opener.
Elgar’s unbeaten 118 came in six hours and 19 minutes; he faced 246 balls and his run tally was over half of his team’s disappointing total.
South Africa also missed three great chances when England batted again with Compton benefiting from two of them, both off the bowling of Morne Morkel.
The first was a straightforward chance to Elgar at second slip when Compton had reached 11, and the second was a very catchable chance to AB de Villiers when he had reached 45.
Fortunately for the Proteas, De Villiers was quickly able to make amends for his mistake, taking a comfortable catch down the leg side two balls later as Compton attempted a leg glance.
Compton had battled well again, this time for 49, but it was overdue reward for an understandably frustrated Morkel who had easily been the Proteas’ best bowler on the day.
De Villiers’s other miss, when he gave Joe Root a reprieve when he was on six – again off Morkel – may prove to be more damaging as the England No 4 finished the day unbeaten on an impressive 60, sharing an unbroken partnership of 53 with James Taylor.