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Elgar: Test should have been stopped earlier

Johannesburg - Proteas opener Dean Elgar, who batted so heroically in South Africa's 63-run defeat to India at the Wanderers, believes the Test should have stopped before he took a Jasprit Bumrah bouncer to the face late on day three. 

With South Africa 17/1 and chasing 241 for victory, the umpires decided after lengthy consultation that conditions had become too dangerous for the batsmen and that play should be stopped for the day. 

That decision, though, only came after the Bumrah bouncer, with the jury still out on whether or not that particular delivery bounced excessively. 

Either way, discussions were had in the match referee's room late on Friday and the decision was taken for play to continue on Saturday morning. 

Elgar, returning to the wicket after having passed two concussion tests, returned to the wicket and batted for the entirety of South Africa's second innings. 

His 86* was as courageous a knock as you will ever see, but speaking afterwards he felt that the umpires should have acted sooner. 

"I do think so, yes," Elgar said when asked if he felt that game should have been called off earlier.

"On day three the wicket didn’t play great. Faf (Du Plessis) mentioned earlier in his press conference that batters got hit a lot more than in usual Test matches.

"I do think if there was a period to call if off, it was sooner rather than later."

Elgar added that the "red tape" surrounding dangerous wickets needed to be addressed, and that everything should be done to protect the safety of the players.

"Unfortunately, it took an incident of being hit in the head, where we could have had another incident of what happened in Australia … I think there is a bit of red tape that guys need to address and maybe do it sooner," he said. 

Elgar was referring to the tragic death of Phil Hughes, who was hit on the back of the head while playing in a domestic game in Australia in 2014.

"I know that people want to watch Test cricket the whole day, but we’re also human beings. We’re not just machines, we’re not just going to take blows and accept putting our bodies on the line," Elgar added.

"It was unfortunate that it had to go into that depth, but I do think the game or the situation of the pitch could have been addressed sooner."

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