It turned out to be a memorable Test match for India in Centurion; in Johannesburg, it was South Africa who made merry with captain Dean Elgar leading from the front. It was here that he took blows upon blows four years ago and yet ended up losing the game against this opposition. However, this time Dean Elgar was even better as he refused to budge despite being attacked physically (short balls) and verbally (sledging). In the end, as Dean Elgar guided his team to a seven-wicket win, the smile on his face was evident.
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“I don’t know what’s the right or wrong way in winning a cricket match, but it’s all about doing the basics right. We ticked a lot of boxes right to make it 1-1. We now go to Cape Town with plenty of confidence – it wasn’t easy, the batters were determined. but credit to our bowlers, the effort they put in was very impressive,” Dean Elgar said after the match.
Dean Elgar is known for playing tough cricket. He is one of those who would dig in the trenches and forge the rear guard acts to take his team to safety. That requires taking body blows. Blows which turns into bruises. “I am yet to see the bruises (the blows he received), but it’s a big motivation to go and play for your country. Whatever I’m going through, it’s important to see the bigger picture and the bigger picture is to win games for your country. When you perform like this over the period of four days, it does make you forget the pain in doing so. A lot of test for our batters, we have struggled to find the right batting line-up, find the people for the right roles, entrust the people into their roles and to bat in such a way in not so easy conditions pleases you a lot.”
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On Rassie Van der Dussen: “The way he batted (Rassie van der Dussen), he will go a long way in his career, the way he batted (during his knock of 40) will set him up in the future. Sometimes KG needs something to happen around, the catch that RvVD took, it got him into the mindset, he wants to be fired up all the times, he wants to bowl well and as a captain, it’s nice to get him running around. It wasn’t easy, but the bowlers did the job for me. Not exactly sure what will happen in CT, played a domestic game there, interesting to see what kind of a surface they’ll give us. 1-1, South Africa v India, going into the final Test all square, we couldn’t have written a better script.”
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