When a team from outside the sub-continent tours India, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, the pitches inevitably become a topic of discussion.
This time, it was South African opening batsman Dean Elgar who brought it up. Elgar, who had had a successful tour of Sri Lanka back in 2014, where he scored a century in Galle as South Africa cruised to a comfortable win, pointed out that conditions now were quite different to what the Proteas faced 4 years ago.
“I think a lot of things have to boil down to the particular conditions that we’ve been playing under” Elgar said. “I do find, this time around in Sri Lanka the wickets have been a lot more challenging to the batters. I think we’ve had the tougher of the two conditions.”
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Both Elgar and coach Otis Gibson, who spoke to the media yesterday, admitted that in these conditions, Sri Lanka had played the better cricket and were deservedly ahead of the Proteas in the series. However, the echoing sentiment seems to be of that the visitors weren’t really given an opportunity to properly prepare for the challenge they would face in the Tests.
“Sri Lanka’s outsmarted us in playing a little bit more street-smart kind of cricket – cricket that we are not accustomed to playing.”
“If I use an example, our tour match – the two-day game that we played – all we faced in the top order was just seamers. I didn’t face one ball of seam in the whole Test series. That’s pretty street-smart, I’d say. They gave us a flat wicket that didn’t turn, and that’s pretty street-smart. The series starts really before the first ball is bowled. The wickets we had were brilliant – they were almost like a one-day wicket. That gives the batters a lot of confidence, because we are smashing everything. In the Tests, all we faced were spinners on pretty dusty wickets. That’s all pretty street-smart cricket I’d say. That’s also the mental aspect, so you have to find a way to deal with that.” Elgar elaborated.
During the aforementioned tour game that was played at the P Sara Stadium in Colombo, the Sri Lanka Board XI featured a pace heavy bowling line-up that included the likes of Asitha Fernando, Vikum Sanjaya, Vimukthi Fernando, Lahiru Gamage and Shehan Madushanka while Lasith Ambuldeniya, Dhananjaya De Silva and Wanindu Hasaranga made up the spin bowling lineup.
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The Proteas made 338 in the two-day tour game, finding the going much easier than they have in the Tests, where Sri Lanka have fielded a far more experienced and skilled bowling line-up that has managed to keep the visitors below 130 in three of their 4 innings.
Elgar’s complaint then is that Sri Lanka ensured that the Proteas did not face a challenging enough surface nor a bowling attack in the only preparatory game they played before the series, particularly as it was common knowledge that spin bowling and spin friendly conditions would play a big role in the Tests.
“We do know the practice facilities were totally opposite to what we got, and that’s just the challenges that you face when you’re playing away from home. You can’t control those things, and as professional guys you need to find a way to deal with it. But I would say that playing in familiar territories or conditions would assist in preparation for series.”
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The fact that 14 of 20 wickets to fall in the game went to spinners, suggests that the wicket was perhaps not as flat as Elgar implied.
What is even more curious, is the fact that the left-hander referred to the Proteas being ‘outsmarted’ by the hosts, almost as if the tactic was not one they had foreseen.
It’s no secret that when playing at home, home teams prepare wickets and try as much as they can to play in conditions that as suitable to the make-up of their team as possible.
“Most teams look to play to their strength when they play at home. When we play Australia, South Africa and England we need to play on these kinds of surfaces. When we go to Australia and South Africa we play on tracks with grass and that are more suitable to their style. Every team wants to make use of home advantage and we’re no different.” – Angelo Mathews
Mathews went on to say that Sri Lanka were afforded the same treatment when they travelled to South Africa back in 2016/17, calling it a tactic that most teams use in order to make the most out of home conditions.
“I remember in the last tour when we landed in Bloemfontein, we had the same. The practice match wicket was nothing like what we played on during Test series. It can be a tactic. Most teams do it. I am not too sure what happened here. It was a slow wicket at the Oval. It spun a little bit towards the end. It was not very flat, but turned a little bit. Our spinners took lot of wickets.”
