Proteas captain Elgar credits thumping win over England at Lord’s to team effort and not individuals

After their thumping innings and 12 runs win over England in the first Test at Lord’s on Friday, Proteas captain Dean Elgar insisted that they remain a work in progress.

The Proteas registered a resounding win at the home of cricket to take a 1-0 lead in this three match series that continues at Old Trafford in Manchester on Thursday.

“Everything has been work in progress since I took over the captaincy early last year,” said Elgar after they embarrassed their hosts to claim this memorable series win inside three days.

“I always felt the core of the group always had the basic fundamentals of one day being the world number one Test side. A lot of them are senior players, most guys have risen over the last year to 18 months.

“They have risen as individuals and as a team. People have really put their individual stuff aside and focused on the team.

“That is the responsibility that we have given them. Everything happened for a reason over the last year but I would like to think that what we have laid down as a foundation has been pretty solid.”

Elgar said their togetherness is genuine and they always aspire to play good cricket.

“It is not fake, it has been pretty unique and it is real. It hasn’t been anything that is far-fetched, these are purely our team goals that I have with the coaches. As the players, we are a special bunch and we play good cricket.

“When we are doing well it is good and may it long continue because it has been a pretty good journey so far and it continues to get stronger.”

Elgar credited their win to team effort and not to individuals.

“There are a few guys who had good individual performances but I am not going to pinpoint those guys. I think a lot of guys influenced in key moments where there were pressure situations during the game.

“Be it a slip catch or a good stop that influenced the next ball or the outcome of maybe a potential wicket. I think our batting was pretty solid, especially our middle to lower order, they really came out and played the situation to a tee.

“That is the kind of awareness that I want to create with the guys, they need to identify those moments and play the game as they see it. They need to learn and fail along the way as well, luckily there was no failure in this game but there are lots of learnings along the way.

“I dint wake up this morning thinking that I will be doing a presser before five o’clock, I definitely didn’t think that but it was a pretty special squad performance.”

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