Proteas need to prove India series win wasn’t a fluke and bounce back against New Zealand

Johannesburg - Elgar said he is still struggling to understand how his side played so badly in the first Test against New Zealand.

Johannesburg - Naturally a two and a half day blowout will lead to a lot of questions and theories attempting to understand the reasons for such a defeat.

The first Test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch is a black mark on South African cricket. However, what makes it so incredible is that no one saw it coming. There really were no clues beforehand that the Proteas would bat for just 91 overs in total, not score a hundred runs in one innings and barely score a hundred runs in the other. Seven catches were dropped six of them easy. The bowling, after the first 30 overs of New Zealand’s innings, would have been deemed embarrassing by a school XI’s second team.

That kind of performance was not foreseen. In fact, it would have been more understandable had India won the Boxing Day Test in Centurion in such a manner.

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At least then, there were excuses; no Test cricket in six months, the Social Justice and Nation-building report was still fresh in everyone’s minds and so it was a distraction, India was a highly motivated, talent-laden side, that was confident after a year of winning big matches away from home. South Africa is still a new unit and while internally, they felt they’d already turned a corner, providing tangible evidence thereof against that Indian team, seemed beyond them.

And then they won both Tests and One-Day series’. New Zealand didn’t look as daunting a prospect anymore, certainly not without the retired Ross Taylor, the injured Kane Williamson and Trent Boult who was on paternity leave.

Dean Elgar spent Friday night trying to ponder