South African captain Dean Elgar criticised an "unsafe" Gabba wicket after his side lost the first Test to Australia inside two days in Brisbane on Sunday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Australians recorded a six-wicket win over the Proteas late Sunday after 19 wickets fell on the second day on a green pitch that offered plenty of bounce and movement to both teams' pace attacks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In all, 34 wickets fell in two days, which led Elgar to ask the umpires whether the surface was safe to play on as Australia was edging towards victory.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I did ask the umpires how long it goes on for before it is essentially unsafe," he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"That's where the umpires' discretion comes in -- it's not up to us players."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
After 34 wickets toppled inside two days, Elgar described the wicket as a hostile batting track.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"The nature of the way it started to play with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball -- you're kind of on a hiding to nothing as a batting group," he said, adding that the track developed divots on the first day which dried out and caused further problems.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"The divots definitely played a big role with the sideways movement, the up and down and obviously the steep bounce, which is quite something to face," he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"And also today the older ball was flying through which really shouldn't be happening.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With Test cricket struggling for popularity around the world, the South African skipper contended that pitches like the one prepared at the Gabba don't help.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"You've got to ask yourself if that's a good advertisement for this format," Elgar said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Australian captain Pat Cummins conceded the wicket was difficult but stressed it was the same for both sides.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It was certainly tricky -- two days probably isn't ideal," he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"There was a lot of sideways movement and today a little bit of up and down bounce as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Personally I don't mind if the groundsmen err on the side of a greener surface."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Cummins disagreed with Elgar that the surface was dangerous.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It was fine," he said. "There were no balls jumping off a length or anything like that."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The International Cricket Council could take note of the quality of the Gabba pitch.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On Tuesday, the ICC penalised the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Pakistan for preparing a pitch that offered no assistance to the bowlers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n