The first Test between England and South Africa at the iconic Lord’s saw two players making their captaincy debut. While Joe Root was making debut as England’s permanent Test captain, Dean Elgar was given the responsibility to lead the side in the absence of Faf du Plessis. The occasion, nevertheless, was huge for both the players but four days after they donned the captaincy band, only one left the ground with a happy face while the other was left searching for answers as to what wrong that his team suffered such a heavy defeat.
Set a target of 331 runs, South Africa lost the match by a huge margin of 211 runs and Elgar, who had called his captaincy debut as the proudest day of his career before the match, said he would be happy to see du Plessis taking the command from the next game.
“There are a lot of things in captaincy you don’t see as a player,” Elgar said after the match. Du Plessis, who missed the match for the birth of his first child, was sitting next to him after returning from South Africa. He chuckled. “He’s laughing because he knows it’s true,” said Elgar. “I’ve learnt a lot in the last week with the different pressures of being the captain, which is good for my growth.”
Not capitalising on the chances was the story of the match for the Proteas. In the first innings, they had England reeling at 76 for 4 but let them off the hook as the Three Lions managed to post 458. Dropped catches, a couple of wickets on no-balls made it tough for them to restrict England on a low total.
The story remained the same when they came out to bat with three of their batsmen- Elgar, Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock, failing to convert their half-centuries into a big score. As a result, the Proteas conceded 97 runs lead in the first innings which went on to play a significant part in deciding the outcome of the match. Losing the toss and missing out on a few key umpiring decisions only made it tougher for the visitors to take command of the proceedings but Elgar admitted that the team needs to carve out its own path in Test cricket.
“In Test cricket, you’ve got to make your own luck and I don’t think we’ve been too kind to ourselves over the last four days,” he said. “It could have been a lot easier with a few things going our way. But these are the punches you have to take, and you’ve got to get up tomorrow morning with a smile on your face – not forgetting that in four days’ time, you’ve got to start again.”
The most dramatic moment of the day came when Elgar rushed to cover Kagiso Rabada’s mouth after the latter dismissed Ben Stokes. Rabada has been suspended for the second Test at Trent Bridge starting on July 14 after yelling F*** o** following Stokes’ dismissal in the first innings. Elgar, while admitting that Rabada has let the team down, said that the young pacer’s absence for the next Test will be a big loss for the Proteas.
“The first person that gets to him when he takes a wicket needs to throw a hand over his mouth, like I did,” he said. “Hopefully, he learns from this. He realises that he is missing a game for South Africa which hurts. He has possibly let the team down. Even more so, he has let himself down.”
“It’s a big loss for everything. A big loss for the Proteas, a big loss for Test cricket,” said Elgar. “He is a vitally important bowler within our attack. He adds a different dynamic to our bowling attack, and he has the aggression factor which is quite important in Test cricket to get those breakthroughs. He has been a phenomenal strength.”
South Africa now face an upheaval task of bouncing back from the heavy loss and their preparation for the next game will be affected by coach Russell Domingo’s absence who has returned home for family reasons. However, Elgar insisted the team will play as a ‘good tight-knit unit’ in the upcoming game.
“The reality of cricket is that you’re always going to lose somewhere,” he said. “The key thing is to bounce back as quickly as possible. I don’t think there’s going to be any drifting apart. We’re still going to be a very good, tight-knit unit.”