Johannesburg — Proteas captain Dean Elgar said he had no regrets about his decision to bat first after winning the toss, despite it handing England a significant advantage that led to them comfortably winning the second Test by an innings and 85 runs at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“Not at all,” Elgar replied to Sky commentator, Michael Atherton, when asked if he had any regrets about not bowling under cloudy skies on Thursday morning. “First innings runs are important in Test cricket, knowing that we are trying to set up the game later on, knowing the wicket might crumble as it showed signs of doing.”
South Africa having taken note of the dry pitch, chose two front-line spinners, breaking up the four-man pace attack that had destroyed England in the first Test, by omitting Marco Jansen and picking off-spinner Simon Harmer.
“Obviously the first innings let us down massively,” Elgar added.
South Africa had slumped to 77/5 at lunch, with Elgar feeling his side had lost two wickets too many at that stage.
“Being three down at lunch, I would have been happy with that. We saw it played a bit better in the afternoon.”
After being bowled out for 151, the Proteas handed England a significant advantage that despite some excellent bowling ‒ that included taking three quick wickets when England started batting ‒ the tourist’s weren’t able to overcome. “I think our bowlers threw everything at them. I can’t take anything away from their performance and England also batted pretty well,” said Elgar.
The other tactical choice that will be scrutinised is the use of Harmer and Keshav Maharaj immediately after lunch on the second day when the match was still in the balance, and South Africa’s quicks were a threat because they were getting the ball to reverse swing.
“The spinners were getting something out of the wicket so we thought, let’s run with that. It was a dead period, where England didn't make too much of a move,” said Elgar.
“The (fast) bowlers had been stretched quite a bit ‒ being there were just three of them, their loads were quite high at the time. Maybe I could have gone to them a bit sooner, but ya again, those are learnings that I will take out of this.”
The second Test starts at The Oval on September 8.
Rassie van der Dussen has been ruled out of that match with a fractured finger and his place in the squad will be taken by Wiaan Mulder.