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Posted: 2022-12-18 09:35:54

South Africa skipper Dean Elgar has hit out at the Gabba wicket as being bad for the game, after the first Test was over inside two days.

Australia claimed a six-wicket victory over the Proteas on Sunday, after 34 wickets fell in the two days of play.

Balls frequently deviated off the very green-looking pitch throughout the two days, with the surface offering increasingly steepling bounce in the closing phases of the game.

Elgar, who scored just 5 runs across two innings, said that having the game finish so early was a bad look.

"You've gotta ask yourself the question, is that a good advertisement for our format?," Elgar said.

"34 wickets in two days, pretty one-sided affair, I would say."

It was the second-shortest Test by balls bowled ever to be played in Australia and one of just four to feature just two days of play.

"I'm obviously a purist of this format," Elgar said.

"You want to see the game go four, five days, and just the way the nature of it, how it started to play, with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you're kinda on a hiding to none as a batting unit.

"If you think about it only two batsman, maybe three batsman only applied themselves half decently and scored some decent runs.

"I don't think it was a very good Test wicket, no."

South Africa were bowled out for just 99 in their second innings, setting Australia a seemingly nominal 34 runs to win.

However, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje combined to take four wickets as Australia limped over the line with 4-34.

Dean Elgar walks in front of his team with his head bowed
South Africa will carry some confidence after reducing Australia to 4-35 in the final innings.(Getty Images: Matt Roberts/Cricket Australia)

Three short balls from Nortje extracted such bounce off the surface they flew up over the batter and wicketkeeper to be given as wides, prompting Elgar to approach the umpires to ask if the pitch was becoming dangerous.

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