Mohali: Dean Elgar had a field day on the opening day of the first Test here at the PCA Stadium, on Thursday. 
He first came up with a career-best haul of four for 22 with his slow left-arm spin and then opened the innings to stay unbeaten on 13 on an increasingly challenging track.

Yet, at the end of the day, the 28-year-old South African had no hesitation in saying that the Mohali wicket was not the best place to play good cricket. “I don’t think it is a very good wicket for good cricket. It is my personal opinion, though,” said the left-hander with a smile. 

“Kudos to India, they were obviously going to prepare wickets like these against us… I was sure. We also knew it was going to be very different from what we are used to. 

“It’s not a very good cricket pitch, but it is a result-oriented wicket which can go either way… It was the like the Day IV wicket in Sri Lanka,” remarked Elgar.

The opener’s frustration could be gauged from the fact that he would have to come out and face the battery of Indian spinners on Friday.  “Batting was not easy,” admitted the all-rounder. 

“We expected the pitch to play like that, but we didn’t expect it to crumble so soon. It was right up there with the hardest ever Test cricket I have had. It was hard work. 

“We can see the Indians are used to putting the opposition under pressure when their tails are up. Let’s hope that it can backfire and turn out to be a great victory for us,” he said.

So much so, the South African felt the score of 201 could prove to be a good total for India in the end. “I would say 201 is a good score because of the nature of the wicket.

“The outfield is another thing. It is fast but it is difficult to generate pace on the ball … It is definitely going to be a challenge for us… It’s going to be a hard graft… 

“We knew that coming to India will be a challenge in its own right. Now we have to find a way and graft and sweat it out,” said Elgar.

Asked what should be his best solution to the situation, Elgar said the key was to remain positive. “We obviously have to go into our shells and fight a bit. It is generally not the way we play our cricket. But Day II is very important. Our aim would be to try and lose as few wickets as possible,” he said.

Elgar refused to agree to the suggestion that playing on a turning track could be as challenging as playing on a grassy wicket. “Well, I am sure it has its flip side as well. I think when cricket is played on a green wicket, it lasts longer than it does on a spinning wicket,” he pointed out.

Commenting on his own success with the ball, Elgar admitted the wicket  had broken up early in the day.

“Fortunately, the wicket had broken up quite a bit and there was quite a bit of rough. 

“I just tried to land in a decent area. It worked out for me. I’m fortunate that the batsmen were a little tentative against me… It is quite nice and worked in my favour and hopefully, I can carry on,” he said.

 

India’s Day I woes

Murali Vijay’s 75 was his fourth 50-plus score in his last five innings for India. Interestingly, his scores in 2015 are 0, 80, 150, 0, 82 and 75.

Wriddhiman Saha became the 7th Indian wicket-keeper to be dismissed first ball in a Test match. The others are P.K. Sen, B. Reddy, K. More, N. Mongia (twice), P. Patel and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (at Nottingham in 2011).

The 92 deliveries faced by Ravindra Jadeja in his innings of 38 is the second-longest of his Test career. He faced 98 deliveries at Trent Bridge last year. 

Dean Elgar, who had taken just six wickets from 69.1 overs in his previous 17 Tests, claimed four for 22 from eight overs on Thursday. This is now his best figures in Tests. Before this Test he had not taken more than one wicket in an innings.

Incidentally it is also Elgar’s best figures in his first-class career. His previous best was 4/25 for Knights in Centurion in 2011-12. 

Since 2000, this is the fifth time India have been dismissed on the opening day of a home Test match. The last time it happened was in Ahmedabad, when they were dismissed for a paltry 76 in 20 overs on the opening day, by South Africa on April 3, 2008.

The last time India played a Test at home was on November 16, 2013, which incidentally was Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test. This also means that for the first time since 1990, India are playing a Test at home, without any of the Big 5 (Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman & Virender Sehwag) and  Dhoni.

Kagiso Rabada became South Africa’s 323rd Test player and the third in 2015 after Simon Harmer and Dane Vilas.
Mohandas Menon