'England played relatively good test cricket'

South Africa’s chastening decline to a 2-1 series defeat after thrashing England by an innings and 12 run in the opening test at Lord’s did little to diminish the natural bullishness of Protea captain, Dean Elgar, who said his opponents had played “relatively good test cricket.

“I don’t think they played extraordinary cricket. I thought they played the correct tempo and when their tail was up, they were striking when they needed to strike. That’s good awareness of test cricket. I didn’t think it was out of the ordinary,” Elgar said following his team’s bruising nine-wicket defeat at the Oval.

Elgar said that a ‘lack of experience’ had cost his team dearly and that he would be seeking players with proven first-class records to join the squad for the Test team’s next assignment, three-tests in Australia in December and January.

Asked about the unusually long gap of 11 days between the second test and the third, scheduled for nine days but extended by two after the three-day thrashing in Manchester.

Elgar said: “We could have cracked on with the third test and been home already. They like to have two tests and a decent break and then play the last one. You can’t plan for three day tests, it was quite a long period. I felt four days or five days was enough and we could have cracked on with the third test. That’s something to look at going forward.”

Something else to look at, perhaps, or ‘revisit’, was the team’s decision to decline the offer of a two-day match against an England ‘Select XI’ during the nine days off between tests. A two-day break at the luxury Belfry Golf Estate was an excellent idea, but there were still seven days available to play a bit of cricket. Which the Proteas declined.

Three of South Africa’s pace-quartet which dismantled England at Lord’s will return him with their reputations enhanced. Kagiso Rabada is an established ‘great’ already and Anrich Nortje bowled a couple of the best spells of the series. Marco Jansen, however, raised more eyebrows than anyone, with bat and ball.

“He’s a massive talent,” agreed Elgar.

“But also very young and inexperienced. He’s got a different mentality and he knows he’s got two bites of the cherry. If one discipline lets him down, he can sort it out with the other. He approaches the game with a positive mindset, he has no baggage, no cobwebs in his closet. He is pretty raw. He has never really been hurt or failed at a young age. He can play with that open, positive mindset and it’s nice to have him around the changeroom and listening to his views,” Elgar said.

The omission of Aiden Markram from the starting XI was obviously something that troubled Elgar and he failed to disguise the angst with which the decision was made. To such an extent that it seemed the decision was not his. Or not one he fully endorsed.

“Aiden has still got a bright future in test cricket. He just needs to get numbers behind his belt and go back to the drawing board. He is still too young and too talented not to be playing this level of cricket. He is still very hungry to play this format but it’s about getting runs, that’s our currency.”