London 20th August : South Africa skipper Dean Elgar expressed surprise at the Test match against England at Lord’s concluding just before tea on Day Three He said it never thought of it when he got up in the early morning on Friday.South Africa thrashed the hosts by 12 runs and an innings in the 3rd day of the opening Test in order to lead 1-0 in the series of three matches and cement their place in the top spot of the World Test Championship standings of the Cricket World Cup.
The crushing win at Lord’s put South Africa one step closer to the ICC World Test Championship final next year.They are at the at the top of the rankings with seven wins and two losses during this year and a winning percentage of 75.Australia as well as Sri Lanka follow them in the rankings, with England languishing at the seventh position with eight losses this season.
“The one thing that did not cross my mind as I awakeed this morning was the thought that I’d be preparing an after-match press conference prior to five o’clock today,” said the captain who acknowledged his bowling attack as the reason for the massive win.
“Having four bowlers who are fast, with third and fourth of them being the most efficient of the four it’s very nice to have,” he was quoted by supersport.com.
South Africa’s pace spearhead, and “man-of-the-match” Kagiso Rabada was given special praise from the captain.”He (Rabada) performs in his own area and is a total gun, he’s a great player to be in the team.in the team, but it’s a pretty special bowling all around,” Elgar said.
The 35-year-old Elgar was appointed the captaincy of the Test team a year and a half back the Proteas were struggling and it appeared impossible to reach their goal of being able to qualify to play in the World Test Championship final, but now they are at the top of in the WTC charts and is close to securing a seat in the final next year.
“I hope that they (team) do not become too comfortable, I’ll certainly not be letting them since I’ve seen what complacency can cause in professional sports.It’s a good representation of the things we’ve accomplished and accomplished in the past year, and that’s the reason we’re in that position,” Elgar said.
“But you must play every game as if it’s the last one, and that’s what I tell myself.It’s going to be difficult to keep going when we continue to play the way we’ve played and conduct ourselves both on and off the field stressing about the little things and focusing on each other the way we do frequently, the results will take care of themselves.”
The victory was South Africa’s fifth victory in seven post-Covid Tests played at Lord’s with the draw in 2008 and a single loss in the past five years, proving that they can rise to the occasion often.
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