Win vs India “In the Top 5” of South African Test history, says head coach Mark Boucher
Reflexes
- In the last two tests, the inexperienced Proteas easily chased down the tricky 200+ target in rebound conditions.
- Elgar led the way for the team in Johannesburg, while Keegan Peterson scored 82 runs in Cape Town to win the team.
- Boucher said he was not surprised by the team’s counterattack.
South Africa head coach Mark Boucher on Friday called the 2-1 win against world-ranked India one of his country’s greatest successes in Test cricket history. After losing the opening test at Centurion on Boxing Day, the Dean Elgar-led team showed great spirit by winning back-to-back matches at Wanderers and Newlands.
Boucher said in a post-match press conference: “Let’s see it also in the way we lost the draw in all three matches. Many people, including some in the media, predicted our defeat after the first day of the first Test of the series. It was wonderful to come back after losing the first test match and winning the second and third test match.”
He said: “It should be one of our top five wins. It’s great to get such a good result despite the situation we were in before the series and what happened off the pitch. The way the whole Test series was played It was difficult”. Fight. It was. Good cricket happened. It should be one of the best test series I’ve ever played in South Africa.”
Prior to this series, South Africa had played just six matches under the captaincy of Dean Elgar and the team landed at the Centurion ground for a test match after a long gap of six months. “This victory will lift a lot of morale. The kind of spirit that these players showed in such a short time is very special,” he said.
In the last two Tests, the inexperienced side led by Elgar easily chased the difficult 200+ target in rebound conditions. Elgar showed the team the way in Johannesburg, while Keegan Peterson scored 82 runs in Cape Town to win the team. Boucher said he wasn’t surprised by the team’s counterattack.
He said: “I’m not surprised because you have a player like Dean (Elgar) in your team. He himself leads the team with passion. You also have Temba (Bavuma) as vice-captain. He struggles. So you have two players leading the way that people can go on.”
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Boucher praised the contributions of Keegan Pietersen and left-arm fast bowling all-rounder Marco Jensen.
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