South Africa captain Dean Elgar has described the decisive third Test against England as the biggest of his tenure ahead of the showdown that starts at the Kia Oval in London on Thursday (September 8). The two teams are level at 1-1 after the tourists won the opening match at Lord’s by an innings and 12 runs. In return, the hosts eased to an innings and 85-run triumph in match two at Manchester setting up a grandstand finish in the British capital.
The South Africans have enjoyed some time off in the English Midlands since the second Test ended inside three days on August 27 and Elgar admits they had now put that loss behind them. “We’re long over that,” Elgar told the pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “We know it wasn’t our proudest moment but in saying that you’ve got to go through the grievance and then you’ve got a job on.
“You can’t dwell for too long on what happened, you have to crack on and focus on what’s next. We’ve had a few days off where I’m pretty sure the guys have gotten rid of that frustration. But we’re still raring to go, we’re still pretty fresh when it comes to that. We’ve only had six days of Test cricket actually, so with regards to freshness we’ve got no excuse around that, with regards to hunger we’ve got no excuse around that. But again, we’ve got to start from ball one. I always say the scoreboard starts at nought and that’s where we are at the moment.”
The Proteas are expected to make one change with Ryan Rickelton due to come in for the injured Rassie van der Dussen, who was injured in Manchester. The former has been in good form playing county cricket earlier in the year, while Elgar suggested that more alterations to the team may also be made.
Match Details
Venue: KIA Oval, London
Date & Time: September 8 to 12 at 330 PM IST
Live Streaming and TV details: Sony Six Network and SonyLIV website and app
Wicketkeeper: Ryan Rickelton, Ben Foakes
Batters: Dean Elgar, Keegan Petersen, Ollie Pope
All-rounders: Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Keshav Maharaj
Bowlers: Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, James Anderson
Captain: Ollie Pope
Vice-captain: Kagiso Rabada
England: Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Mark Leach, Stuart Broad
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar(C), Sarrel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Marco Jansen, Kyle Verreynne, Ryan Rickelton, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada