Elgar impressed with Sri Lanka seamers
South Africa opener Dean Elgar was impressed with the way the Sri Lanka seamers used the old ball on day one of the first Test in Galle, saying he much preferred facing the quicker new ball.
South Africa opener Dean Elgar was impressed with the way the Sri Lanka seamers used the old ball on day one of the first Test in Galle, saying he much preferred facing the quicker new ball.
Elgar scored a century on the day, the first by a Proteas opener in Sri Lanka, but was out for 103 before the new ball was take. The visitors went on to score 268 for five at stumps, after losing some late wickets.
Elgar said: "The Sri Lankan seamers are very good exponents of their own conditions The minute the ball started getting soft, they started changing their paces and bowling the odd cutter.
"It was almost like one-day disciplines. The easiest time to score is off the new ball."
He went on to say that having Faf du Plessis, who scored 80, with him for much of his knock helped, as well as drawing on previous experience: "You just have to find a way – something that works for you.
"Luckily you are not alone out there. You have a team-mate which helps. Communicating is quite important. Faf and I get on very well and on the field we seem to get on very well. We've had some good partnerships and we know what makes each other tick."
He also lamented the toss of four wickets in the evening session, and said they had hoped to be closer to 400, but would make a strong effort on day two to push the total to a competitive one.
He added: "Four hundred is usually a mark you want to be at. With us losing two quick ones towards the end, maybe the mark shifted a bit but I'd still like to us push as close as possible to that mark.
"We would have loved to have been one wicket down, but such is the nature of the beast. We've got to edge closer to that mark and we know its' going to be a tough day tomorrow but we've still got batsman in hand."
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