Opening batsman Dean Elgar became the first Proteas cricketer to score a Test century in India in almost a decade, on day three of the series opener at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Friday.
The tourists moved to 292/5 at the tea break, leaving the deficit at 210 after the opposition had amassed 502/7 declared on the back of opener Mayank Agarwal’s double-century.
Elgar was dropped by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was grassed by silly point fielder Rohit Sharma on seven.
Elgar and De Kock moved to 133 not out and 69 not out, respectively, during an unbroken 114-run alliance. The former was superb in consolidating the good work done with captain Faf du Plessis earlier, while the latter was characteristically aggressive.
Prior to Friday, the Proteas hadn’t welcomed a centurion in India since 2010.
India: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami.
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Theunis de Bruyn, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Senuran Muthusamy, Keshav Maharaj, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada.
Photo: Gallo Images
