Elgar searching for ‘biggest win of his career’

The Proteas bounced back in the second test match at the Wanderers to level the series with the captain scoring a crucial 96 not out in the second innings to see his side home and set up a series decider in Cape Town.

With a series victory on the line as well as crucial ICC World Test Championship points Elgar knows that the intensity is going to be higher than the side has experienced in a long time.

“To win this match would be the biggest win of my playing career so far,” Elgar said. “That comes from a captaincy and leadership perspective but for the playing group a win would be massive.

“We’ve put in so much hard work in the last few months and I think we’ve been checking the boxes well and that last test match speaks massively for the group.

“Test cricket is always going to have intensity and this match won’t lack that and you have to maintain that through five days.

“You might not be able to keep that intensity for five days but you have to be pretty consistent in implementing that through the whole match.”

The sides head to Newlands with India welcoming back their captain Virat Kohli after he missed out on the test in Johannesburg.

Looking at what they expect from the conditions, Elgar believes it’s going to be a good wicket for test cricket.

“I heard that they did quite a lot of work on the wicket since we played a domestic match there.

“The conditions look pretty good and it’s probably the best I’ve seen Newlands look in quite some time.

“They (the conditions) look quite welcoming for us and I think they just preparing a good test wicket that will deteriorate over the five days.

“It does look like a relatively good cricket pitch,” Elgar added.