Dean Elgar gives South Africa solidity with half-century in Centurion Test

South African opener Dean Elgar scored his ninth half-century in Tests, against India on Day 4 of the second match in Centurion.

South Africa opener Dean Elgar overcame a nervous start to score his ninth Test fifty, in the second Test against India here on Tuesday. Elgar reached the half-century with the help of six boundaries, taking 93 deliveries in the process. (IND v SA 2nd Test Day 4 updates | Scorecard)

South Africa's Dean Elgar scored his first half-century of the ongoing series against India at Centurion. (AP)

Along with AB de Villiers, Elgar has already stitched a 124-run partnership for the third wicket that threatened to derail India’s dream of winning this Test after falling just 28 runs short of South Africa’s first innings. Elgar’s innings was not the most fluent though he looked in super touch when he brought up his fifty with a crunching cover drive off Ishant Sharma.

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Among all the India bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin troubled him most with the ball spinning away from him and with a lot of bounce at times. Elgar though dug in to give de Villiers adequate support from the other end.

He wasn’t bogged though, especially not when he cleared his front leg to whack Ashwin over long-on for a welcome six. In the battle with Ashwin, Elgar didn’t miss out on the loose deliveries. When Ashwin bowled a full toss, he swept him for a boundary. Before that, another full toss was slapped through mid-wicket. Ashwin though bounced back every time, drawing him into a forward defence and beating his edge.

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Jasprit Bumrah could consider himself unlucky, drawing a couple of edges from Elgar that weren’t pouched. Biggest chance for India came when Bumrah induced a poke from Elgar just three balls into resumption of the game after rain on Monday. The ball flew between wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel and first slip Cheteshwar Pujara, both of whom didn’t go for the catch.