South African captain Dean Elgar believes his pace bowling cartel are the “best in the world” and highlighted the “demons” they could cause for the Australian batsmen.
While the touring side were dominated in the first Test in a two-day rout, the Proteas were able to take four wickets while the hosts were chasing only 33 runs.
Elgar believes that short-ball barrage could have inflicted mental scars on Aussie superstars Steve Smith, David Warner, Travis Head and Usman Khawaja who all were sent packing.
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“I definitely think so, I always say I’d rather be facing them in the nets for a short period of time than facing them in the middle because I know what they can bring,” Elgar said.
“Hopefully those four wickets on day two have created a few demons amongst the camp, we will see.”
Elgar was also asked if he believes the South African bowling attack were being underestimated and replied by saying “ours are the best in the world”.
“I’d rather be standing at slip instead of facing them,” he added.
“If people want to underestimate them that’s okay, we believe and we have massive faith in them that they can win us a Test match.
“But we have got to get them into that situation so they can perform their trade.”
The Australians boast the No.1 Test bowler in the world, Pat Cummins, with South African speedster Kagiso Rabado sitting in second place.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all sit higher than the remaining South African seamers.
Marco Jansen, who jumped five places on the leaderboard after the first Test, is the 22nd best bowler while Anrich Nortje (24) and Lungi Ngidi (28) sit below him.
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Nortje himself had a message for the Australian batsmen ahead of the Boxing Day Test and also highlighted the final session as a mental advantage for his side.
“I wanted to make sure it’s not going to be easy… it’s going to be hard to get,” Nortje said.
“Just coming as hard as we can during that session, during that short little time and making it uncomfortable – it went according to what we wanted to do.
“Not even a session – probably half a session – and the game could have been different and we could have been in a winning position.
“That’s how quick things were happening, so you can’t really take too much … you can’t look at losing by six wickets and say it’s a big margin on that wicket.”
Nortje also said “it’s never nice getting a ball past your head at high speed” and said his side need to be “on it again” in what could be a fiery clash at the MCG come Boxing Day.
“I just think all-in-all, in general, giving a ball at 140-150km/h past your head is not comfortable,” he said.
“Whether you’re the best puller or best player in the world, it’s still uncomfortable.
“In a certain situation, you could possibly hit someone and just take their feet away, so that’s the goal of a bouncer.
“You never know when it’s going to come.”
