Elgar makes hay but falls on 199
BAD LUCK: UNFORTUNATE OPENER JOINS SELECT GROUP
The old cliché of cricket being a funny old game rang true for Dean Elgar in Potchefstroom yesterday, the second day of the first Test between South Africa and Bangladesh.
Elgar will obviously have fond memories of the day because he made his highest Test score, but he also had to endure the horrors of being dismissed for 199 and then dropping two catches – in successive overs from Keshav Maharaj – at slip.
With South Africa resuming on the second morning on 298/1, Elgar had obviously set out his stall for a double-century. In the company of Hashim Amla, who breezed to a gorgeous 27th Test century, the left-handed opener remained the master of the Bangladesh attack.
But then, an hour after lunch, he was undone, trying to pull Mustafizur Rahman, but looping a catch to midwicket. Elgar had batted for more than nine hours for his 199, and faced 388 deliveries, hitting 15 fours and three sixes.
Bangladesh had claimed the wicket of Amla straight after lunch for 137, before Temba Bavuma (31*) and Faf du Plessis (26*) took South Africa to 496/3 before the declaration at tea.
Bangladesh reached 127/3 in the 34 overs before stumps.
Litton Das, faced with the tough job of opening the batting after keeping wicket for 146 overs, due to Tamim Iqbal’s injury, played some attractive strokes in scoring 25 before Morne Morkel had him caught in the slips.
Kagiso Rabada had earlier removed Imrul Kayes (7) with a brute of a delivery, but from 36/2, Mominul Haque (28*) and Mushfiqur Rahim (44) provided some bright resistance with a stand of 67 in 15 overs.
Mushfiqur was dropped on six and 15 by Elgar, but Maharaj had the captain taken at short-leg by debutant Aiden Markram.