Sometimes, pitch conditions can be too dangerous and it might lead to cancellation of the game. A similar thing happened today in the 3rd test match between India and South Africa today in Wanderers stadium; for the 3rd time in the history of test cricket, umpires called off the play because the pitch was labeled as “Too dangerous”.
South Africa was chasing the target of 242 runs, but in the 9th over of their 2nd innings, an unfortunate incident took place. When Jasprit Bumrah delivered a bouncer to Dean Elgar, it hit the grille of his helmet.
It was owing to inconsistency in the pitch and large cracks that the ball couldn’t bounce well. Elgar was immediately given treatment; meanwhile the umpires had a discussion with match referee Andy Pycrott and called it off.
Here’s the video of the same;
Umpires take teams off because of dangerous pitch when Elgar gets hit in the grill from a short delivery. I know it's been a tough track but short deliveries are meant to be intimidating, I believed. pic.twitter.com/WpJGeGNaLL
— chas plummer (@chasplummer1) January 26, 2018
Click here to watch the video directly on Twitter.
Many had already predicted that this pitch is indeed a dangerous one and playing on this is “Unfair”. Even on day 1 and day 2, Indian cricketers like Murali Vijay and Kohli have been hit due to inconsistent bounces.
After watching Elgar’s video, Twitter says that it’s his fault that he couldn’t judge the bouncer and the pitch is not to be blamed. Here are some reactions;
1
So what’s the difference of this pitch than earlier today? Sunny G is right. If the umpires were going to call it off, then it should have been done earlier…. but India battled through it. Now SA should have to do the same.. sadly Elgar didn’t play it well.
— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) January 26, 2018
2
You can't cancel a match because a ball "bounced more than Dean Elgar expected it to". Then we will have to cancel every match Shikhar Dhawan plays.
— Alagappan Vijayakumar (@IndianMourinho) January 26, 2018
3
So #elgar plays a bouncer poorly and they abandon the match ? What a bunch of losers #SouthAfrica they made this wicket to out do us and we outplayed them … our batsmen roughed it out on this wicket this is such a. Shame poor sportsmanship
— Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor (@HarshKapoor_) January 26, 2018
4
Dear South Africans,
A Short Pitched Ball Climbs Up. No Matter Which Pitch In Any Part Of The World You're Playing In. Stop Your Lame Drama You Chokers. 😡😠😡 #INDvSA #INDvsSA #SAvIND #SAvsIND #Elgar pic.twitter.com/O7AW1eokgC
— Sir Jadeja fan (@SirJadeja) January 26, 2018
5
" Yes this is bad pitch but the delivery that hit on Elgar is nothing to do with pitch " ~ Gavaskar
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) January 26, 2018
6
That's a proper fucking bouncer that Elgar was just not good enough to handle
— MV (@mahektetweet) January 26, 2018
7
https://twitter.com/chinmaybhogle/status/956914380674756610
8
https://twitter.com/Pradeep68637953/status/956928733897637888
Whether match will be played on Day 4 or not, decision will be taken tomorrow morning itself. According to you was it Elgar’s fault or was the pitch actually the reason?
