Elgar scare for Centurion Test
ANKLE INJURY: OPENER STEPPED ON BOUNDARY ROPE Stiaan van Zyl on standby to open against New Zealand.
South Africa are desperate to climb back up the Test rankings and this is not being helped by how few Test matches they play, captain Faf du Plessis, who also has to contend with the potential loss of opening batsman Dean Elgar due to a training injury yesterday, said ahead of the series-deciding match against New Zealand at Centurion from today.
Elgar stepped on the boundary rope during the Proteas’ practice session yesterday, twisting his ankle and having to be helped to the changeroom. The left-handed opener underwent intensive overnight treatment before a decision will be made this morning, but he was said to be reasonably confident of playing. Stiaan van Zyl, another left-hander, is set to replace him if Elgar is not able to play.
Following the ruined first Test in Durban, it is just another disruption for the Proteas, who don’t seem to have warmed to the idea of a one-off decider as much as the Black Caps have.
“Honestly, two Tests is even too short, but I know five is very hard to do with the packed schedule. But we would like three or fourTest series, you play two and one gets rained out like in this series and you’ve just got going and the series is over. It’s very disappointing when you’re lying so low in the rankings, we want a much higher standard of performance and we need as many wins as possible to get back up the rankings. For that we need to play as many Tests as possible,” Du Plessis said.
The stand-in captain said even though he was playing at his home field, he was not entirely sure how the pitch would behave, it being August of course when Test cricket has never been played in South Africa before. But Du Plessis expects it to be in the same category as the Kingsmead pitch.
“Kingsmead was a great cricket wicket, there was something for the bowlers and if you knuckled down as a batsman, the runs were there as well. The pitch here looks a touch soft and moist, so the toss will be similar to in Durban – a tough decision. We need to look at all situations, like in Durban the wicket is green but should be slower and then speed up.
“Obviously the sun then plays a different role and sunshine is expected for all five days. Generally, batting here on day five is challenging because the pitch gets up-and-down, but on day one you have to deal with a bit of green grass. But we have a great record here,” Du Plessis said.