Elgar guides SA out of trouble
Player’s determined 129 makes up for early setbacks
SOME centuries are shaped by their circumstances, others by the talent and skill of the centurion, and still others by the quality of the opposition. Dean Elgar’s 129 against Sri Lanka at Newlands yesterday was none of the above.
It was, instead, carved out of circumstances that should never have yielded an innings of such quality, scored with just as much, if not more, cussedness and determination than talent and skill, and against a tide of classy bowling.
The South Africans should be hugely thankful for Elgar’s triumph of substance over style.
It took them to 297/6 at stumps on the first day of the second test, which is a long way from the 66/3 they were two overs before lunch.
They lost Stephen Cook to the fourth ball of the match and without a run on the board, and Hashim Amla and JP Duminy six balls apart.
Suranga Lakmal did for Cook with an outswinger that wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis caught.
Lahiru Kumara, a 19-year-old fast bowler, removed Amla with an inswinger that crashed into the stumps.
Then he had Duminy taken behind with a legside delivery that was gloved and, somehow, caught by a tumbling Mendis.
Elgar had faced 62 balls at that point after Angelo Mathews had won the toss and refused to bat on a grassy, green pitch that lurked under scudding clouds.
His bowlers proved their captain’s decision correct by finding their line and length early on, and, along with that, plenty of swing and seam movement.
Elgar stood firm through all of that, and even though conditions eased once the sun started dipping towards Table Mountain, he knew he could never trust the ball to be where he thought it was when it reached his bat.
Amla met the challenge posed by all that and helped Elgar add 66, and Faf du Plessis stuck around long enough to share 76.
Temba Bavuma stayed for only half-an-hour.
Then Quinton de Kock and Elgar seemed set to stand tall.
But in the sixth over before the close and with the partnership worth 103, Elgar feathered the new ball, bowled by Suranga Lakmal, to Mendis.
As Elgar walked off, with throaty appreciation for his feat, he slowly removed his helmet and, eventually, raised his bat with a weariness that could be felt from hundreds of metres away.
He had batted for six hours, faced 230 balls and hit 15 fours.
As impressive as all that sounds, watching him do it was much more so – because there is no contest when statistics meet a special performance, and special this one was.
But cricket is a game of numbers, and the most important of them for the home side going into the second day’s play is that De Kock is 68 not out.
Might Kyle Abbott, who responded with a punchy 16 not out, and Vernon Philander help De Kock ensure Elgar is not South Africa’s only centurion?