Dean Elgar: Gabba pitch didn't allow for "fair contest" between bat and ball

The first Test between Australia and South Africa was wrapped up inside two days, with the home side completing a six-wicket win in Brisbane

Dean Elgar has criticised the pitch used for the first Test between Australia and South Africa, stating the surface at the Gabba did not create a "fair contest" between bat and ball.

Australia completed a six-wicket win inside two days in the series opener, bowling South Africa out for 152 and 99 before chasing the required 34 runs in eight overs.

It is just the second time Australia have won a Test match inside two days – their first came against West Indies in Melbourne in 1930/31 – while at 144.3 overs, it is the eighth-shortest completed match in Test history.

Kyle Verreynne and Travis Head were the only players to pass 40 with the bat, with the former scoring 64 runs off 96 balls during South Africa's first innings and the latter striking 92 runs (96 balls) to help Australia to 218 in reply.

Australia's second-innings chase, however, was not trouble-free, with Kagiso Rabada picking up four wickets from his four overs and Elgar believes his side could have defended 100 given the imbalance in fortunes between the batters and bowlers.

^{The pitch at the Gabba on day two [Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images]}

"If you have two quality bowling attacks, it's what people want to watch but they want to watch it for five days and obviously it didn't happen this way," Elgar told Fox Sports after the match, acknowledging the contributions of both sets of bowlers.

"If you were a bowler, you were licking your lips. It was challenging for the batters, no doubt, which is okay if there's a good contest between bat and ball. On the flip side, I don't see it as a fair contest.    

"Another 60 runs and it might have been on our side. I am still trying to wrap my brain around what happened over the last couple of days."

He later added: "34 wickets in two days, a pretty one-sided affair, that leads into what everyone is thinking. I'm a purist, I want to see the game go to four or five days and the way, the nature of it, and how it played with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you are on a hiding to nothing as a batting unit.

"I did ask the umpires when KG [Kagiso Rabada] got Head out down, how long does it go on for until potentially it is unsafe. I know the game was dead and buried, it was never to put a halt to the game. Maybe they felt I was trying to take the mickey, because there were only a handful of runs left to get. It's not a bad reference point to get a reply. There wasn't a reply."