Proteas bowlers prepared for hard fight

Alastair Cook (0) and Keaton Jennings (0) survived four eventful overs before stumps on day three, and will have to survive against a ‘hungry’ and motivated attack en-route to the record 474 runs required for victory. 

Proteas opener, Dean Elgar, says the new ball will be important in the first session on Monday, but believes every bowler in the attack will have a role to play in a series-levelling performance.   

“ It’s going to be hard work to get the 10 wickets,” he admitted on Sunday after the day’s play. “It is perfect for us, that is what our bowlers are looking forward to. We don’t want an easy Test victory, it has to be hard work to win a Test match. We are excited for tomorrow. 

“I’d like to say everyone (has a role to play) but the new ball is massive for us,” he explained. “ We saw in the short four overs that we had this evening that there is still a lot in the wicket. We have bowlers who can exploit the conditions off the wicket. 

“Throughout our first innings of bowling a lot of the bowlers contributed. It is exciting to see, it shows you that the guys are hungry and they want to perform, ball in hand or bat in hand, they want to do the job.”  

Hashim Amla (87) and Elgar (80) showed the mentality required for the conditions with a gutsy 135-run second-wicket partnership, which set up the platform for the 343/9 declared. He admits that conditions have eased up from a batting point of view, but hopes the variable bounce and deteriorating conditions will play to the team’s favour.  

“ I hope it gets a lot tougher tomorrow,” Elgar said of the conditions. “ It was quite challenging, especially this morning with overhead conditions, the ball moving around a bit and facing world-class seamers who are good at exploiting swing bowling. It was hard graft for myself and Hash (Amla), we didn’t score quickly throughout the day but that is the nature of the game. It is slowing up and hopefully the wicket deteriorates in our favour tomorrow.”