Dean Elgar: Dean Elgar created history by scoring a century
Dean Elgar Century: On the second day of the Boxing Day Test between India and South Africa, Dean Elgar’s century saw the hosts amass 256 for five at the end of the day’s play and India lead by 11 runs. Based on the first innings. Two centuries have been scored so far in the first Test of the series between India and South Africa. For India, KL Rahul scored his century in this match while Dean Elgar, playing his last international series, also scored a century in his first innings for his country. Elgar remained unbeaten until stumps on the second day. Along with completing his century in this match, Elgar also created some records in his name.
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In fact, Dean Elgar had announced before the start of this series that this series would be the last series of his international career. Dean Elgar made this series memorable by scoring a century in the first match.
With this century, Dean Elgar became the only batsman since Herschelle Gibbs to score a Test century in each of the seven venues where South Africa played at least one Test. Herschel Gibbs is the only other player to have scored a century at seven different venues in South Africa. Gibbs has played Tests at eight different venues in Africa and it was not just in East London that he scored a century.
Dean Elgar scored a century in 140 balls in this match and this is Elgar’s third fastest century in Tests. Earlier he scored a 116-ball century against Bangladesh in Bloemfontein in 2017, while in 2021 he scored a 133-ball century against Sri Lanka in Joburg.
Dean Elgar’s century is the first by a South African batsman on home soil in seven home Test matches against India since 2014.
If we talk about the match, on the second day, Team India, who started playing ahead of the score of 208, ended up on 245 runs in their first innings. For India, KL Rahul played an innings of 101 off 137 balls on a pitch with uneven bounce.
In reply, South Africa maintained their upper hand with a 131-run partnership for the fourth wicket between left-arm batsman Elgar (140 not out from 211 balls) and debutant David Bedingham (56 from 87 balls).
India bowled out South Africa for 11 but then Elgar and Tony DeGeorge (28) added 93 runs for the second wicket to strengthen the hosts’ position. Bumrah ended the partnership by getting Jorzi caught by Yashaswi Jaiswal at third slip.
The second day’s play was also ended early due to poor light. African team captain Temba Bavuma did not come out to bat after suffering a leg injury while fielding on the first day.
Earlier, Rahul started the day with an unbeaten 70 runs and scored a century. He hit 14 fours and four sixes in his innings and scored his eighth career Test century. He was the last batsman to be dismissed.