Dean Elgar showed dogged fighting spirit and led by example to hand his young team a morale-boosting win at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Thursday. But the South African captain seemed to be thinking of the bigger picture with the series tied 1-1 and the final Test coming up in Cape Town.
“I’d like to think that the knocks just gave me added motivation,” he said after remaining unbeaten on 96 on way to their seven-wicket victory. “The bigger picture is to win and I wanted to show our young group that sometimes taking the blows can be worth it.”
It was also the first time South Africa had beaten India at the Wanderers.
“I don’t know what’s the right or wrong way in winning a cricket match, but it’s all about doing the basics right. We ticked a lot of boxes right to make it 1-1. We now go to Cape Town with plenty of confidence. It wasn’t easy, but the batters were determined,” Elgar remarked.
“Credit to our bowlers, the effort they put in was very impressive. I am yet to see the bruises (I received), but it’s a big motivation to go and play for your country. Whatever I’m going through, it’s important to see the bigger picture which is to win games for your country.
“When you perform like this over a period of four days, you forget the pain in doing so.
“I’m not exactly sure what will happen at Newlands (the venue for the third Test)… it will be interesting to see what kind of a surface they give us. South Africa and India, going into the final Test all square, we couldn’t have written a better script.”
Rival coach Rahul Dravid praised Elgar’s effort.
“He played well. He stuck it out there and went through difficult periods. We beat the bat quite a few times in fact. But we haven’t really been lucky as the odd ball hit the gloves and has fallen where there haven’t been fielders even after it kicked up,” said Dravid.
“But credit to him as even after being beaten at times and not looking very comfortable, he stuck it out there and showed a lot of resilience, determination and fought his way through. We just have to keep coming back and got some clear strategies and plans against him. We have got him out with those strategies and plans, but at times, it doesn’t work your way.”