South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel came down heavily on Centurion surface and said it was similar to bowling India.
“There’s a very sub-continental feel to it. It is tough to score, and tough to get people out. Luckily we’ve got some experience of that in the bank. But they are not the conditions that we want here in South Africa. I’ve played cricket here all my life, and I’ve never seen a wicket like this at the SuperSport Park. It was really hard work. In the heat, with conditions really tough, it was right up there with one of the hardest spells I’ve bowled,” said Morkel after day three of the second Test.
“I think the pace of the wicket was the toughest aspect. You’ve got a small little window with the new ball. The reason might be because it is under covers overnight, but in the first hour, the balls seems a little bit quicker off the deck. But after that, there’s actually been no pace in the wicket. It’s important to come out with different sorts of game plans. You need to try a lot of things but we had run on the board in the first innings to try different things. From a bowling point of view, it is definitely not the ideal sort of surface,” he added.
Talking about the days play, Morkel said South Africa got a bit lucky as Hardik Pandya was run out,
“Luckily by a runout, things changed a little bit. Otherwise, I think it would have been an interesting sort of day. And then with the bat this afternoon, I thought Dean (Elgar) and AB played superbly after losing those two early wickets. It was tough, with Ashwin bowling from one end and they had the luxury of rotating their seamers from the top. But the way they stuck out, to have the lead by over 100 tonight is satisfying,” said Morkel.
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