Port Elizabeth, South Africa // Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis punished the West Indies for fielding lapses as South Africa built a strong position on the first day of the second Test in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
South Africa were 270 for two at the close after being sent in to bat in overcast conditions at St George’s Park.
Elgar made a Test-best 121 and shared a second-wicket partnership of 179 with Du Plessis, who finished the day on 99 not out.
The West Indies missed four chances to break the Elgar-Du Plessis stand. Their bowlers could feel aggrieved as they bowled with much better control and discipline than they did in Centurion, where they were beaten by an innings and 220 runs in the first Test.
“The pitch was slow, but there was a lot of seam movement,” Elgar said. “They bowled very well. They had their chances, but they didn’t take them.
“They didn’t give us a lot. The more experienced bowlers in the line-up hit the area where scoring runs was difficult.”
Du Plessis was put down by Marlon Samuels at gully off Jerome Taylor when he was on eight, and then by Devon Smith diving to his right off left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn when he had 26.
One ball after Du Plessis’ second escape, Elgar went down the wicket to Benn and was well out of his ground as the ball hit low on the pad of wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin. Elgar was on 48 and, to add insult to the bowler, he went down the wicket again and lofted Benn to the straight boundary to raise his fifty.
Elgar could have been run out on 73. After a mix-up with Du Plessis, he was several metres short of safety when Kenroy Peters’ throw from midwicket missed the stumps.
It was slow going for much of the day, with South Africa seldom getting their run rate above three an over. Elgar took 127 balls to reach 50 and 208 balls for his century.
He batted with more fluency later in his innings and had faced 239 deliveries, hitting 18 fours, when he edged a catch to Ramdin off debutant left-arm seamer Peters.
Du Plessis was even slower than Elgar in reaching a half-century off 137 balls. He faced 228 balls before the close and hit 12 fours and two sixes.
“We get along quite well and we’ve had some substantial partnerships,” Elgar said. “We know what to say to each other at the right time. If we see the one person is getting a bit loose, we have a word in their ear.”
Elgar and Alviro Petersen put on 47 for the first wicket before Petersen played a rash stroke against Shannon Gabriel and was caught by Leon Johnson, running back from cover.
Peters and Gabriel were among three seam bowling changes in the West Indian bowling line-up, with Jason Holder also getting his first game of the series.
Peters said it had been a “joyous day” for him, making his Test debut at the age of 32, six days after being called up as a replacement for the injured Kemar Roach.
“I noticed the step up immediately,” he said. “There are fewer mistakes made by the batsmen and the bowlers have to work extra hard.”
Batsman Temba Bavuma became the sixth black African – and the first since Lonwabo Tsotsobe four seasons ago – to play Test cricket for South Africa. He replaced the injured Quinton de Kock to become the 85th player capped since South Africa returned to Test cricket in 1992.
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