“Pretty spicy”: Dean Elgar blames green Brisbane pitch for lack of fair contest in 1st Test vs Australia

South Africa Test captain Dean Elgar wasn’t particularly happy after the recently concluded first Test against Australia in Brisbane. While one doesn’t expect any Test captain to be happy after leading his team to a 6-wicket loss within a couple of days in the first of a three-match series, Elgar’s reasons for unhappiness were not limited to South Africa’s on-field performance.

Acknowledging the presence of two high-quality pace-bowling attacks standing tall on their reputation, Elgar bemoaned that they could put on display their skills only for two days.

In spite of getting three extra days ahead of the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Elgar didn’t consider his team needed to prepare in a different (read better) way moving forward. Considering that they had ticked all boxes in preparation before the first Test, Elgar hoped for Boxing Day Test conditions to be in favour of a full-fledged five-day match.

Dean Elgar blames green Brisbane pitch for lack of fair contest in 1st Test vs Australia

Elgar, 35, was pretty honest in expressing displeasure with respect to a lush green pitch at the Gabba. Having aided pacers to an unprecedented extent, the mostly unplayable surface played a key role behind the fall of 34 wickets in less than six sessions.

“It [pitch] was pretty spicy [smiles]. If you’re a bowler, you’d be licking your lips by how everything unfolded. Challenging for the batters, no doubt. That is okay if there is a fair contest between bat and ball. Obviously, on the flip side, I don’t see it was that way really,” Elgar told Fox Sport during the post-match presentation ceremony of the second-shortest Test (with a result) played in Australia.

With high-profile neutral cricketing voices such as Virender Sehwag and Michael Vaughan condemning the Brisbane pitch after the culmination of the 24th two-day Test match in the history of cricket, Elgar’s disapproval stands validated.

Elgar, however, was sport enough to label a brisk 117-run partnership between Australia vice-captain Steven Smith and batter Travis Head as a “difference” between both the teams. On a surface where batters got out for single-digit scores 23 times, Smith and Head indeed made the difference in the first innings yesterday.