Ind vs SA: Didn't expect ball would stay so low, says Shami; Elgar blasts Centurion pitch

 Indian pacer Mohammed Shami on Tuesday expressed surprise at South Africa rolling out a sub- continental type of pitch for the second cricket Test here.

India were reduced to 35/3 while chasing 287 for a series-leveling victory at stumps on the fourth day. "I did not expect the ball would stay so low in this wicket. Till now in overseas conditions, we have not seen such slow and low bounce wickets. So I don't know what they were thinking when they made this wicket. But whatever it is we have to play on it and the conditions are same for both teams. Tomorrow we will try to win," said Shami.
"The wicket has been slow since the beginning, even on the first day you saw that it is going low continuously. And even today, it went slow and low and you needed a lot of extra effort. We tried to give 110-120 percent. That was more important for us," he said at the post-match press conference.

Shami took 4/49 in the South African second innings as the hosts were bowled out for 258. He took three wickets in the morning session, but bowled only the last over of the post-lunch session. He did not even come on to bowl when he had the chance of taking a five-wicket haul. "It depends on the captain when he wants to bowl which bowler. It also depends on the conditions. I bowled before lunch so I could not bowl immediately. So the captain is also thinking that we should bowl with rotation. The plan was that whenever I will get chance I will come to bowl," said Shami. "There are some stages in front of you that you want to bowl more but the captain thinks that we should get them out quickly. So you cannot mind that, but yes, sometimes you do feel inside that maybe I could have got five wickets. But if you see from team's point of view, you will not feel like this," he added.
South Africa's lower-order stonewalled the Indian bowling post lunch and India did not take the second new ball available to them.

Asked if India should have attacked more, Shami said, "Today, the whole day, we were looking to give away as few runs as possible and we wanted to attack them fully. We went all out on attack and gave away as few runs as possible. We wanted to bowl in good areas as we had given them 28-run lead. So we wanted to restrict them to as low a score as possible and bowl in good areas as much as possible. "For any bowler, it is a lot of frustration when the fielder is there and edges are coming, what you want is happening but the batsman isn't getting out. So there is a little frustration mentally but you need to be mentally strong at that stage and how long you can persist with it, that is more important. Like Quinton de Kock got three boundaries on three consecutive good balls, but I did the same again and I got result on that," he added.

Talking about missed chances in slip cordon, he said, "When you make a unit and get 15 guys to play for the country then you should have self belief, and mix up with each other, so that this is our best and we will make him stand in slips. It is part of the game that you will drop some catches but we are not robots or machines that we will catch all of them. We can only try and then the rest is dependent on luck." Having already lost three wickets, India have a tough ask ahead of them on day five tomorrow. Asked about the team's chances, Shami said, "About the result, we have stopped them at a very good target and the rest is about luck."

South African batsman Dean Elgar today admitted that the conditions here worked in India's favour but his side somehow found a way to be on top of the proceedings in the second cricket Test. At the end of the fourth day's play, India were reduced to 35/3 while chasing 287 and they were staring at a series defeat. "It was a brilliant day for South Africa. By no means was it an easy day. The conditions worked in India's favour. The ball was turning quite a bit for Ashwin and he utilized it quite nicely, especially against the left-handers. Their seamers were quite effective in conditions they seem quite used to bowling in," said Elgar.

"We were in quite a lot of trouble yesterday when AB and I got together, and we knew we had to find a way and grind it out. We were very thankful for the lead on that wicket -- whether it was 30 runs or 50 runs -- it was going to prove quite a lot. It was a good day for us and the cherry on the top was the way the bowlers put their hands up," he said at the post-match press conference. Elgar and de Villiers put on 141 runs for the third wicket and set up the base for South Africa's second innings that ended on 258.

The opener made his highest score -- 61 runs -- at this ground in the second innings. "We had to try and bat as long as possible. There was so much time left in the game. We knew we had to knuckle down and work in small segments. Our first target was to reach drinks and then as we started getting used to the pace of the wicket, run-scoring opportunities proved to be easier. That was the nature throughout the day," said the opener. "When Vernon Philander and Faf du Plessis were batting together, you could see it was a tough start and then scoring became easier. One ball has got your name on it and you have to be quite cautious because of the unknown. It was to take it as deep as possible, get their bowlers to bowl a lot of overs," he added.

Asked about the pitch, he said, "First and foremost I am not a curator of a cricket ground. We give an indication of what we would like as a team playing against various opposition, and being the home country you have that right. As it's working out, the wicket is playing into our favour. If the shoe was on the other foot, I think we would feel quite hard done by." "It's very disappointing because SuperSport Park usually prepares very good Test pitches and as day three, four and five roll on it proves to be very competitive. It shows you should not just be relying on your first innings, you should be relying on your second to score runs as well.

"It's a little disappointing to have a wicket of this nature because it's not what we would choose to play a subcontinental side on, but so be it, we are done complaining about it. We just need to crack on and try and win a Test," he added. The big blow for India came when Lungi Ngidi trapped Virat Kohli lbw. Elgar said that it was a relief to see Kohli's back."It's massive for us and I think it's massive for India, knowing he is not batting. He's a very special batsman as we saw in the first innings and we knew it was a massive moment to get him out. But we all knew it was possible because he is human and he can also fail. I am sitting here with a smile on my face knowing there is one less very competitive, very talented guy that we don't have to deal with," he said.

"We need to get seven wickets somehow, we don't really care how. We just need to execute our processes. The wicket will play into our hands nicely with our seamers and Keshav Maharaj coming in on what is proving to be a decent spinning wicket. Our fast bowlers thrive on bowling on wickets like this. If they can get the ball to reverse as soon as possible it will be a massive asset," he signed off.