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South Africa captain also heaps praise on Keegan Petersen who, he says, has “gone into a ‘great player’ mould now”

Vishal Dikshit14-Jan-20223:41

Cullinan: ‘Jansen a great find, Rabada No. 1 pacer in the world’

South Africa Test captain Dean Elgar is “extremely proud” of his team for “responding brilliantly” after being down 1-0 in the series to fight back and claim the trophy against the No. 1 Test side in the world. After clinching the series 2-1 with a seven-wicket win in Cape Town, Elgar said his team was “thrown under the sword” a few times in the series, and he had a few “tough chats” with his players, which they responded to “and grew massively in the last two Tests.””Pretty elated, I think it will obviously sink in in a day or two, maybe this evening,” Elgar told the host broadcaster at the presentation. “Couldn’t be prouder of the group, of players I have underneath me. We were thrown under the sword quite a few times in the series and the guys responded brilliantly. After the first loss, the boys had a lot of hope going into the second and third [Tests] knowing we can still win this. We obviously had to follow our ways and processes going into those games. [I] asked the players to respond in a better nature, better way and they responded brilliantly. Extremely happy.Related

• The pace comparison – Where Rabada and Co bettered India's fast bowlers

• The rise of Petersen, the wisdom of Elgar and a great SA victory

• Stats – South Africa first team to win a three-match Test series without scoring 250

• India's Newlands nemeses: Risky full length, SA's height and home edge, the Jadeja void

• 'I am lost for words' – Mark Boucher on 'tough nut' Keegan Petersen's showing against India

When asked how the hosts turned things around despite not being as experienced as India, Elgar said: “Challenging your players within the group, characters as well. You need immense characters to stand up in these kinds of tough situations. The way our bowling unit came in and operated throughout the last two Tests has been brilliant; throughout the series they’ve been brilliant. Sixty wickets in a Test series is quite a tough challenge for them but I threw down the challenge after the first game and the guys responded brilliantly. We’ve got a young, talented group but the experience they’ve been gaining…in this environment every day we’re gaining this experience, which is brilliant for us. It was unreal to see how a group that doesn’t have the repertoire or names, how they could gel together and play as one. This is a proper unit that we’ve operated in and it’s a proper team, by no means I can single-handedly pick out players because everyone has played a big part in vital situations throughout the series. Extremely, extremely proud of this group.”Like Elgar said, South Africa’s bowling outshone their Indian counterparts throughout the series. Three of South Africa’s four fast bowlers – Kagiso Rabada (20), Marco Jansen (19) and Lungi Ngidi (15) – topped the wicket charts while no India bowler could get to 15 wickets in the series.India captain Virat Kohli also admitted at the presentation that South Africa’s bowlers “were better at applying pressure in long periods of time.” Elgar further said once he had laid down the challenge for his players, it was down to the XI to perform.”Ultimately, if you want to operate at a high performance level, you need to have tough chats,” Elgar said. “If guys don’t like it, that’s up for them to deal with. I’ve got an old-school mentality with bit of a new-school twist. I laid down some proper challenges to the senior players as well, to obviously stand up and respond and it was brilliant to see the guys take the message and follow it. It’s one of the bigger challenges to get everyone on your side and buy in from a captain’s point of view. The guys responded brilliantly. I’ve got absolutely no regrets going into the three-match series that we’ve played. I’d like to think I gave us the best message going forward in order to pull off a series win.”Elgar also extolled the determination Keegan Petersen showed in the series, to emerge as their biggest highlight and a prospect for the future. Petersen, 28, struck three half-centuries in the last two Tests, including 72 and 82 in the third game, to lead the scoring charts with a tally of 276, which earned him the Player-of-the-Match and Series awards in only his fifth Test.”Brilliant. He’s the one who responded since the first game,” Elgar said of Petersen. “He’s been immense. I’ve known Keegan for quite some time now, I’ve played a lot of domestic cricket against him. Always known he’s a good player. He’s gone into a ‘great player’ mould now which is obviously a lot to say for guys who’ve only played a few or handful of Tests. He’s only into his fifth Test now. I’ve always known he had this ability; he has dominated domestic cricket leagues from a run-scoring point of view and it’s awesome to see him have a great series in the second and third Tests obviously. And long may he grow.Keegan Petersen acknowledges the ovation as he walks back•AFP/Getty Images

“I think there’s still a lot of scope for improvement from his point of view. I think the world’s his oyster at the moment. Even though he’s a little bit older but he’s somebody who’s willing to learn, and you need characters like that. He’s a proper character in the change room as well. He’s got a bit of a light-hearted manner to him as well which is something you take for granted when you’re playing serious cricket. Extremely proud of what KP has achieved.”Elgar said his responsibility as captain was to pull the team together after the first loss in Centurion “hurt” them when they went down by 113 runs.”Us as a group, we’ve been hurting a little bit which is something for us to feed off,” he said. “We played as a unit, and the bottom of the line is if you’re playing as a unit, you can go a lot quicker.”I think as a unit, we’ve grown massively within the last two Tests. The first Test loss hurt us, and we know from a South African point of view, if you want to compete in Test cricket and you want to be world No. 1 one day, you have to compete and beat the best in the world. I’m extremely happy that things worked out for us after that. It could have gone wrong, and I could have had egg on my face but massive respect for the players for following my message.”Elgar also hinted the series win could be a sign of things to come for the future of South Africa’s Test cricket. After the ODIs against India, South Africa will fly to New Zealand for two Tests in February before they host Bangladesh for two Tests in March-April.”By no means we’re a finished article, I can tell you that,” Elgar said with a smile. “I’m already thinking about the next series, which is something I need to manage and control because I’m going to blow my brain out. It’s a lot of positives going into that next series, there’s a lot of negatives that we also have to work on. We have hit it on the head and in order to grow we need to curb those challenges that we have.”

Pretorius, van der Dussen, Kapp and Nortje also express their support for BLM movement

Firdose Moonda17-Jul-2020Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s Test and T20I captain until February this year, has admitted to having “got it wrong before” as he, alongside Dwaine Pretorius, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortje and Marizanne Kapp, became the first members of the white Afrikaans cricket community in South Africa to publicly voice their support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, joining Lungi Ngidi and 32 former players and five current coaches of colour.”In the last couple of months I have realized that we must choose our battles,” du Plessis, who along with Pretorius has indicated he will take a knee during the 3TC exhibition game on July 18, wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. “We are surrounded by many injustices in our country that require urgent attention and action to fix them. If we wait only for the ones that attack us personally, we will always live for ‘my way vs your way’ and that way leads us nowhere.”So I’ve remained silent, with the intent to listen, but not respond. Slowing down my point of view, but quicker to hear the pain of someone else. I knew that words would be lacking and that my understanding is not close to where it needs to be.”I surrender my opinions and take the knee as an intercessor. I acknowledge that South Africa is still hugely divided by racism and it is my personal responsibility to do my best to emphasize, hear the stories, learn and then be part of the solution with my thoughts, words and actions.”Du Plessis acknowledged that his comment earlier this year, in which he had said the team did not see colour – when talking about Temba Bavuma being dropped from the Test team – was naïve. “I have gotten it wrong before. Good intentions were failed by a lack of perspective when I said on a platform that – I don’t see colour,” he said. “In my ignorance I silenced the struggles of others by placing my own view on it.”A race problem is a human race problem, if one part of the body hurts ,we all stop, we empathize, we get perspective, we learn and then we tend to the hurting part of the body. So I am saying that all lives don’t matter UNTIL black lives matter. I’m speaking up now, because if I wait to be perfect, I never will. I want to leave a legacy of empathy. The work needs to continue for the change to come and whether we agree or disagree, conversation is the vehicle for change.” Pretorius, who was talked out of a Kolpak deal to play for South Africa late last year, also said he would get behind the BLM movement as a way to start taking steps against racism. “I will be proudly supporting the BLM movement and I will be taking a knee on Saturday. I honestly and wholeheartedly believe it’s the right thing to do. I also believe taking the knee is only the start,” he posted on Facebook.”To me the BLM movement stands for the most basic right all people across the world deserve and that is the right to not be judged or segmented because of his/her colour. But rather for WHO they are. It’s not a movement that says: Black lives are MORE important than any other colour. It’s my brother from another mother asking me please see me for WHO I am and don’t persecute me because of my skin colour. Give me the same benefit of the doubt you would given someone with the same colour as you. Yes,the movement says ‘Black’ but I believe it’s relevant to any color and race. As a person and a Christian, I believe it’s my responsibility to strive, to treat every person I come across with the same respect and not judge them. We are all equal and loved the same way by God. There are no exceptions.”I would love to see my boy one day live in a world where colour has no judgement. It’s time to be the change you would like to see in the world. Talk is cheap and action is more powerful. The knee for me means it’s time to take action. #blacklivesmatter.”Whether van der Dussen will join the pair is not yet known but he was the first white South African cricketer to show his support when he replied to a tweet by journalist Max du Preez. In Afrikaans, van der Dussen said that he supported BLM and rejected the notion that standing with the movement indicated support for violence. It has been a fractious fortnight, which started when Ngidi indicated he would be in favour of his team-mates “making a stand” like many others around the world since the BLM movement picked up steam.Ngidi faced a backlash from four former players – Rudi Steyn, Pat Symcox, Boeta Dippenaar and Brian McMillan – who called on South African cricketers to also acknowledge murders of predominantly white farmers around the county. But Ngidi has since received a swell of support. His stance, along with Michael Holding and Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent’s moving documentary aired on before the first Test between England and West Indies, also prompted several players to speak out about issues of racial discrimination. That culminated in a statement from 31 former players, including Makhaya Ntini, Vernon Philander, JP Duminy and Ashwell Prince, and five coaches. Hashim Amla issued an independent statement on Instagram the following day. CSA has since sent out two statements expressing its commitment to being part of the BLM campaign, with the board’s director of cricket Graeme Smith, saying last week that the players were mulling a fresh means of showing support during the 3TC event that may not include the BLM logo on shirts, because the kits had already been printed.

The team was en route to the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers at the time of the attack but escaped to the nearby Hagley Oval

Mohammad Isam in Christchurch15-Mar-2019Bangladesh’s tour of New Zealand has been called off following a terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques, in which at least 40 people have been killed. The players and other members of the touring party are safe, in lockdown at their hotel; some of them were on their way to one of the mosques for Friday prayers at the time of the attack but escaped to the nearby Hagley Oval.

Timeline of the Christchurch attack

1.40pm (local time): A man enters a Christchurch city mosque and opens fire on the people inside. Witnesses hear multiple gunshots.
1.52pm: Senior Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal calls travelling ESPNcricinfo journalist Mohammad Isam for help. He asks Isam to call the police and inform them about the “shooting” at the mosque they were about to enter.
2.45pm: The team, after consultation with NZC and BCB, heads to the hotel on Cathedral Street.
2.54pm: New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush says the situation involves an “active shooter”.
4.15pm: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks publicly, calling it “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” Later, calls it a “terrorist attack”.
5pm: The third and the final Test of the tour is called off by NZC, after consultation with the BCB and ICC.

New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush said police had made four arrests in connection with the attack, which included multiple improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles.Prime minister Jacinda Ardern called it a terrorist attack. “There is no place in New Zealand for such acts of extreme and unprecedented violence, which it is clear this act was,” Arden said. “This is and will be one of New Zealand’s darkest days. I would describe it as an unprecedented act of violence, an act that has absolutely no place in New Zealand. This is not who we are.”The attack took place just after 1.30 pm local time. The players and some support staffers were on their way to the Al Noor Mosque, less than a mile from Hagley Oval, when they saw signs of the unfolding carnage. They initially stayed in the bus and made phone calls, including one to this reporter, who was at the ground. Several journalists then came over to where the bus was and accompanied the players to the ground.ALSO READ: ‘There’s shooting here, please save us’Much of the coaching staff were back in the team hotel while the head coach Steve Rhodes was at the ground. Later, the players went back to their hotel.Team manager Khaled Mashud said the players had had a lucky escape. “We must have been about 50 yards from the mosque. I would say we were really lucky. Had we reached even three or four minutes earlier, we probably would have been inside the mosque. This could then have been a massive incident.”He said arrangements were being made to fly the team back to Bangladesh as soon as possible.Within a couple of hours the two boards had decided on the fate of the tour. “We are shocked and appalled as I am sure all New Zealanders are,” NZC CEO David White said. “We are offering support to all those within the teams affected by the situation and are continuing to take advice from authorities on the ground.”The Bangladesh team will take off from Christchurch at midday on Saturday and arrive in Dhaka in the evening.

In the bowlers rankings, James Anderson reclaimed the top spot from Kagiso Rabada, who now trails the England seamer by 15 points

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2018On the day he was named cricketer and captain of the year at the ICC awards, Virat Kohli became the second India batsman, after Sunil Gavaskar, to scale 900 points in the Test rankings for batsmen. The India captain vaulted from 880 points to 900 following his 153 against South Africa in the Centurion Test.Gavaskar had reached 916 points after he scored a remarkable 221 in his 50th Test at the Oval in 1979. In all, Kohli is the 31st batsman to 900 points in the Test rankings. Donald Bradman leads the list with 961 points followed by current Australia captain Steven Smith (947), who has drawn comparisons with Bradman after peeling off 687 runs in the Ashes series. In terms of Test averages, Smith is placed just below Bradman.Smith is currently 47 points ahead of Kohli and 66 ahead of the third-placed Joe Root. Hashim Amla, who made 82 and set up South Africa for a first-innings lead in Centurion, moved from tenth to eighth, while his captain Faf du Plessis jumped two places up to a career-best 12th.In the bowlers rankings, James Anderson reclaimed the top spot from Kagiso Rabada, who took four wickets in Centurion. The South Africa quick, who lost his top spot after only one Test, now trails Anderson by 15 points. India fast bowler Mohammed Shami, meanwhile, moved two places up to 17th after claiming a match haul of five wickets in Centurion.

Victoria wrapped up a 198-run win on the final day against New South Wales at the SCG

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Nov-2016
ScorecardThere were plenty of smiles on the sidelines of the New South Wales v Victoria game, with Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade and Nic Maddinson all called into Australia’s Test squad•Getty Images

Chris Tremain and Scott Boland delivered a big win for Victoria over New South Wales on the final day at the SCG, where the Blues were bowled out for 192 in their chase of 391.Tremain and Boland finished with three wickets each and spinner Jon Holland picked up two as Victoria wrapped up victory by 198 runs.New South Wales had resumed at 1 for 39 on the final day, but on a pitch on which plenty of deliveries were staying low, batting did not prove easy.Opener Daniel Hughes top scored with 54 before he was bowled by Holland, and Australia captain Steven Smith managed only 16 before being bowled by Tremain.There was some resistance from Moises Henriques (37 not out) and Nic Maddinson, who made 33 on the day of his call-up into the Test squad, but Victoria were never seriously troubled in their push for victory.