South African captain Faf du Plessis says there was nothing wrong in demanding bouncy pitches in the just-concluded Test series against India as the visitors don't exactly welcome them with "green tracks" when the Proteas travel there.
South Africa won the three-Test series 2-1 and pitch became the buzzword in the third and final match here. The track at the Wanderers was deemed dangerous by several experts for the uneven bounce, which unnerved batsmen on both sides.
The Virat Kohli-led Indian team showed tremendous grit to bat on and claim a consolation win on the treacherous surface.
"Whether it's one percent or five percent or ten percent — whatever you can you must try and get an advantage against opposition. When we go to India, we certainly don't play on flat, green tracks," he said . "And I assume that there would be a similar conversation happening there. For me it's just making sure that there's a conversation happening with the management of our team and also the groundsman about the conditions that would be ideal for a Test series. This Test series we didn't get that, and I can't give you the reason for that," he added.
Du Plessis insisted that the Wanderers track was not dangerous.
"I don't think so (that it was dangerous on) days one and two. The only time I got a little bit concerned was when Dean got hit in the face. That's when I got a little bit concerned for player safety.
"Even in Indian innings, there were quite a few guys that got hit on the fingers quite regularly. I think if you count the number of times guys got hit it was much more than usual," he said. "You know excessive sideways movement is tough but not dangerous. As soon as guys started getting hit from a length, that's when we thought it might be dangerous. But surprisingly the pitch played fine again today. So we had the opportunity to chase down the game and we didn't do that."
The furore over pitch aside, Du Plessis said the hosts were not upto the mark in the third Test and didn't make good use of the opportunities that came their way during the four days.