Dean Elgar showcased his class with a fluent century on Day 2 of the first Test against India at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The southpaw scored an unbeaten 140 at stumps on his penultimate Test as he has already announced that this series is going to be his last. He stamped his authority over the Indian bowlers with some counter-attacking shots on both sides of the ground.
Meanwhile, India did manage to bounce back with a couple of wickets in the final session but the Proteas managed to take an 11-run lead at the stumps with 256/5 on the scoreboard in reply to India’s 245.
Elgar (140*) and Marco Jansen (4*) were unbeaten at Stumps as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj shared two wickets each before bad light brought early stumps on second day’s proceedings. Meanwhile, Prasidh Krishna also claimed scalps at the later stage of the final session after his struggle in the initial sessions.
Elgar shared two crucial partnerships — first a 93-run stand with Tony de Zorzi (28), for the second wicket and then 131 runs for the fourth wicket with debutant David Bedingham (56) — to hand South Africa a slight upper hand.
It was Elgar’s 14th Test century and only second against India. He has so far struck 23 fours during his unbeaten 211-ball knock as South Africa lead India by 11 runs at Stumps.
The veteran Proteas pacer decided to attack third and fourth pacers who were rendered completely ineffective on a good bowling track.
Ravichandran Ashwin also bowled 8 overs but he didn’t find any assistance from the surface and remained wicketless alongside Shardul Thakur who gave away 57 runs in his 12 overs.
Earlier, KL Rahul once again turned out to be a crisis man for India and scripted history by scoring a fine century on Day 2. Resuming his inning at 70, Rahul decided to take on the bowlers considering he was tagging alongside the tailenders. The flamboyant wicketkeeper smashed Kagiso Rabada and Gerald Coetzee for sixes to reach the triple-figure mark.
There were no overt celebrations and he must have felt more relief than joy after an effort which will certainly rank among his best in recent times.
It was his second Test century on the Proteas soil and interestingly both of them came at the same venue. On the last tour also Rahul smashed a century at Centurion.
Brief Scores:
India: 245 all out in 67.4 overs (KL Rahul 101, Kagiso Rabada 5/59, Nandre Burger 3/50).
South Africa: 256 for 5 in 66 overs (Dean Elgar 140 batting; David Bedingham 56; Jasprit Bumrah 2/48, Mohammed Siraj 2/63).
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