Two late wickets notwithstanding, Dean Elgar’s maiden century at his home ground – Centurion – paved the way for South Africa’s dominant display with the bat on Wednesday. The hosts took an 11 run lead over India, with only five wickets down on a second-consecutive day which was abruptly cut short due to weather conditions – bad light being the reason on Day 2.

The day began on a fairly positive note for India, with KL Rahul adding valuable runs in the company of the last two batters en route to his century before getting cleaned up by Nandre Burger, handing the pacer his third wicket of the innings on debut. His innings helped the visitors to a fairly decent 245 on a challenging surface.

India made early inroads with Mohammed Siraj having Aiden Markram caught behind on 5. India’s new ball pair Jasprit Bumrah and Siraj bowled in tight channels with some help from the conditions, but couldn’t cause further damage. Elgar and Tony de Zorzi put up a resilient show in the morning session helping the hosts to Lunch at 49 for 1.

Elgar broke free soon after the Lunch break, quite unlike his conventional style of play, driving and pulling when the opportunities presented itself. It helped that the surface had flattened out a bit by then and lacked the bite that had troubled the batters for most parts of the match till then. It helped that Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna, the change bowlers, weren’t as disciplined with their lines and lengths.

Elgar and Zorzi added 93 runs for the second wicket before Jasprit Bumrah returned to his second spell and pegged SA back. He first had Zorzi outside-edging to slips and then Keegan Petersen inside-edging a ball on to his stumps in quick succession, reducing the hosts to 113 for 3. Elgar and David Bedingham took their time to settle in, but with the ball becoming older and softer, and the Indian pacers struggling to maintain tight channels, they had their opportunities to score quick runs.

Both took on the short balls, a ploy that didn’t work out for India. Debutant Bedingham in fact pulled a six each off Shardul and Prasidh en route to his half-century. Elgar also took his chances and brought up his 14th Test ton with a pull off Shardul for a boundary. It was his fourth fastest Test ton. The duo maintained the scoring rate and brought up their century stand soon after the Tea break, extending it to 131 runs before Bedingham was undone for pace by Siraj’s full delivery that knocked over his stumps.

India found another breakthrough soon after with Prasidh getting Verreynne to cut the ball to the ‘keeper. Even as the on-field umpire ruled it not out, the decision was reversed with a review. The debutant troubled the South African batters with his lengths late towards the day, but Elgar despite getting hit on his fingers managed to bat safely till bad light stopped play, and went to Stumps unbeaten on 140, in the company of Marco Jansen.

Brief scores:
South Africa 265/3 (Dean Elgar 140*, David Bedingham 56; Jasprit Bumrah 2-48, Mohammed Siraj 2-63) lead India 245 (KL Rahul 101, Virat Kohli 38; Kagiso Rabada 5/59, Nandre Burger 3/50) by 11 runs