South African skipper Dean Elgar has lambasted the Gabba pitch on which Australia defeated the Proteas in less than two days. Elgar claimed he was ignored upon asking the umpires about the dangers of batting on the surface.
Notably, the Aussies completed their victory an hour after tea on Sunday as the match was decided in 866 deliveries – the second-fewest in the 355 men’s Tests held in Australia. The tourists were put in to bat and bowled out for 152 and 99 in their two innings, while Australia made 218 and 35/4 to end the game.
After the match, Elgar was asked to share his thoughts on the pitch, and he described the surface as a hostile batting track. The South African skipper mentioned his chat with the on-field umpires, where he asked the officials about the danger of playing on the surface but didn’t get a satisfying response.
“I did ask the umpires. When ‘KG’ got Head out down leg [on Sunday], I said, ‘How long does it go on for before it potentially is unsafe?’ Then Nortje was bowling those short ones that were flying over our heads. I know the game was dead and buried. It was never to change or put a halt to the game, but that was where the umpires’ discretion comes into play, not us as players. No. There were only a handful of runs left [to get] at that stage, so maybe they thought I was just trying to take the mickey. But it’s not a bad reference point going forward to get a reply. I don’t see it changing anything, but there wasn’t a reply,” said Elgar in the post-match presser.
As many as 34 wickets fell in the two days, and Elgar reckoned it wasn’t a good advisement for Test cricket before mentioning that it wasn’t an ideal pitch in Brisbane.
“You’ve got to ask yourself – is that a good advertisement for our format? Thirty-four wickets in two days; a pretty one-sided affair, I would say. We want to see the game go to four or five days. The nature of how it started to play, with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you’re on a hiding to nothing as a batting unit. Only three batsmen applied themselves half decently and scored runs. I don’t think that was a very good Test wicket,” added Elgar.