We’re here to win a Test series against England, says Elgar

Proteas captain Dean Elgar admitted batting was their biggest downfall as SA slumped to an innings and 85 runs defeat against England inside three days in the second Test at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Elgar, though, insisted that with the series still alive, SA would not panic, and would review what needed to be done to bounce back in the final Test at The Oval from September 8.

In a complete reversal of roles from the Lord’s Test, which SA won inside three days, the Proteas won the toss and chose to bat in Manchester and were bundled out for just 151 in their first innings.

In reply, the English posted 415-9 declared, thanks to centuries by captain Ben Stokes and wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes, as they set the Proteas a second-innings target of 264.

Again the Proteas seemed to wilt under the English attack, losing three wickets before lunch before Keegan Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen fought valiantly with the bat to see out the afternoon session.

However, when Stokes picked up the wickets of both set batsmen, followed by the introduction of the new ball shortly after tea, it was the catalyst for a collapse that saw the Proteas lose seven wickets for 38 runs as the hosts levelled the series.

“First innings runs stabilise your game. If you score 300-plus, you give yourself the best chance to compete and get a result in your favour and we got half of that,” Elgar said.

“I really don’t think we batted well, but this is Test cricket. You have to deal with it.

“You can go into panic mode when these things happen, but the coach [Mark Boucher] and I are not those types of guys.

“We are here to win a Test series and we’re still in a position to do that.”

Losing those two quick wickets to go to lunch on 77/5 on the first day changed the course of the match for his side, Elgar believes.

“If we were three down at lunch, 80-odd for three, we would have been in a pretty good position and I would have bitten my arm off for that result. But we were five down — you are always going to be playing catch-up cricket.

“We saw that the wicket did deteriorate like we thought it would, which I thought favoured both the seamers and the spinners, but I do think our batting in the first innings let us down a bit.”

Elgar said Rassie van der Dussen, who batted with a fractured finger that has now ruled him out of the final match, showed a lot of character.

“We always knew it would be hard work for us to get on par with them, and he showed a lot of  guts to be quite frank, a lot of character and toughness.

“That is what his character brings out when his back is against the wall, and now he is competing with a broken finger as well.”

Asked what SA need to do to get things right in a batting line-up that was caught napping, Elgar said the time had come to make telling calls.

“Some tough decisions will be coming our way, obviously with Rassie out, we will have to replace him.

“Whether that is the only change we will make, we have got nearly two weeks before the next Test, so we will go away and get options, get better combinations.

“The bottom line is we need runs from the middle order and at the moment, that is letting us down quite a bit.

“To be frank, bold and honest, that is the truth, and as much as guys don’t want to hear it, I think they know that already.”

With Reuters