There was just one two-day practice game prior to the Tests, played at P Sara Oval against a Sri Lanka Board XI side. The South Africans did well there, scoring 338 in their only innings, with Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma and Faf du Plessis scoring half-centuries and Elgar hitting 43 in 48 balls.

Since then, though, South Africa have scored just 126, 73 and 124 in their three completed innings and are 139/5 in the second innings of the second and final Test, still 351 away from making it 1-1 for the series.

“I don’t want to say the toss determines the series or the game. But I think it would have played quite a big role. If we’d managed to bat first in one of the Tests it would have been a different encounter,” he said. “I think we would have had the best of the batting conditions. But that doesn’t rub out the fact we’ve let ourselves down with the bat.”

Mathews, meanwhile, reminded Elgar that it wasn’t too different when Sri Lanka went to South Africa in 2016-17, or in general.

“I remember in the last tour when we landed in Potchefstroom, we had the same. The practice match wicket was nothing like what we played on during Test series. It can be a tactic, most teams do it,” he said.

“I am not too sure what happened on this occasion. It was a slow wicket at the P Sara. It spun a little bit towards the end. It was not very flat – turned a little bit. Our spinners took a lot of wickets.”