Elgar replies to Rahul's imperious 100 as South Africa edge ahead in 1st test

 

India is under increasing pressure in the first Test.  South Africa have already led by 11 runs.  Five wickets still in hand.  Dean Elgar is at the crease and batting solidly .  It will be difficult for India to maintain the momentum of the match if they fail to pick up wickets at the start of the third day.  South Africa score 256/5 at the end of the second day.  India scored 245 runs in the first innings.

 India started the second day's play with 208 runs for 8 wickets.  At that time Rahul was batting for 70 runs.  Siraj was with him.  It was not easy to make fast runs in cloudy weather.  Kagiso Rabada was bowling on the first day.  So Rahul plans to run against the rest of the bowlers.  He was playing like that.  Siraj accompanied him.

 Rahul reached 95 runs by hitting sixes from 89 runs.  It looked like he would get his century in the next over.  But Siraj got out in that over.  The only one left was Prasidh Krishna.  Somehow he held his own.  Rahul hit the last ball of that over for an imperiously pulled  six off Coetzee.  This is his eighth century in Tests.  Rahul also scored a century on this ground in the previous tour of South Africa.  He brought back that memory.  Out of 100 runs, 80 runs came on the boundary.  He hit 14 fours and four sixes.  In the next over, Rahul was out again while hitting a big shot bowled by debutant Burger .  He returned with 101 runs.  With that, India's innings ended on 245 runs. Rabada took 5 wickets while Burger took 3 scalps .

The Indian bowlers could not make that impression.  Jaspreet Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj took four wickets together.  Prasidh Krishna took a wicket.  But the way he and Shardul Thakur allowed the South African batsmen to get runs , India was missing Mohammed Shami at one point.  Although it was a pace-supporting pitch, Ravichandran Ashwin was working to stop the runs.  Elgar also gave a catch but Shubman Gill dropped that catch at slip.

 This is Elgar's last series.  He once again recognized his class in the farewell series.  He scored a century before the tea break.  India's innings looked like it would not be easy for the South African batsmen to score runs on this pitch.  Bumrah and Siraj also started like that.  Both the openers were struggling to play. Siraj gave South Africa the first blow . Markram dismissed after 5 runs.  But after that Elgar stood firm on one side of the wicket.  He was first accompanied by Tony Zorzi.  Later David Bedingham formed a pair with Elgar.  India's run has been topped by South Africa based on these two pairs.

Zorzi (28) was dismissed by Bumrah who cleaned bowled Keegan Petersen for 2 as he tried to cut . However the promising Bedingham played a classy innings and gave Elgar great support.  Bedingham played some lovely shots before he was bowled by Siraj for 56 and Verreyene followed cheaply but Jansen kept Elgar (140*) company as South Africa now lead by 11 runs with Elgar having already played an outstanding knock of 140 not out .