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Cricket PlayersSouth Africa vs England: In unwanted company - 21 years later Dean Elgar joins Gary Kirsten
SA vs ENG: Elgar thus became only the fourth South African batsman to be dismissed on the first ball of a Test match. This comes 21 years after the season Gary Kirsten was humbled by the great Antiguan Curtly Ambrose at Cape Town.
Opening the batting in a Test match on a green surface is perhaps the most daunting of all challenges in the sport of cricket. Sound technique and ability to persevere are prerequisites to survive the early onslaught of the red cherry bearing pacemen.
Despite the above qualities sometimes an opener also needs a grand bit of luck to stay on the crease. Something that South Africa’s Dean Elgar definitely did not have on his side on Thursday. The southpaw, known for his ability to grind it out in difficult circumstances, was dismissed on the first ball of the Boxing Day Test against England, after Joe Root decided to put the hosts in.
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James Anderson strode in like an aging stallion and pitched the ball on length. It would have been a jaffa for a right hander, but the ball was wide outside the leg for Elgar who was drawn in towards taking his gloves close to his hip, a natural reaction from a batsman when a ball is bowled at length on or outside the leg-stump.
To the Protea batsman’s utter dismay, the cherry took a feather edge of the bat before nestling in the gloves of Jos Buttler. Anderson, playing his 150th Test, appealed instantly, his mates voicing their excitement in unison, and the dreaded finger of umpire Chris Gaffaney was up.
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The glee on Anderson’s face symbolic of a hunter who is lucky to get his prized prey without much effort and a stroke of luck.
Elgar thus became only the fourth South African batsman to be dismissed on the first ball of a Test match. This comes 21 years after the season Gary Kirsten was humbled by the great Antiguan Curtly Ambrose at Cape Town.
Jimmy Cook and Eddie Barlow are the other two South Africans in this inglorious list, one that Elgar had no desire or purpose to be a part of this Boxing Day.
