Virat Kohli and Team India ‘forgot about the game after DRS controversy’, says SA skipper Dean Elgar

South Africa had started the series with an embarrassing 113-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion.

South African skipper Dean Elgar said the DRS controversy offered them a ‘window’ to have a go at the target with the Virat Kohli-led Indian team getting distracted by their on-field chatter during the series-deciding third Test. The left-handed opener’s LBW decision by umpire Marais Erasmus was overturned after HawkEye showed the ball trajectory going over the stumps.

It led to tempers fraying in the Indian camp with skipper Kohli along with his deputy KL Rahul and senior offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin mocking the South African broadcasters ‘SuperSport’ on stump microphone. Chasing 212 in tough Newlands conditions, South Africa were 60 for one in the 21st over when Elgar got the reprieve but with the Indian camp busy with the DRS controversy the hosts went on to score 40 runs in the next eight overs.

“That obviously gave us a little bit of a window period, especially yesterday (Thursday) for us to score a little bit freer and obviously, chip away at the deficit that we needed or the target that we needed,” Elgar said after their series-clinching seven-wicket win in Cape Town on Friday (January 14).