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1st Test, Day 2: Elgar misses double century before Bangladesh suffer early losses

South Africa claimed three wickets after hundreds from Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla put them in control against Bangladesh.

Elgar misses double century before Bangladesh suffer early losses

Potchefstroom, Sep 29: Dean Elgar agonisingly missed out on a double century but hundreds from the opener and Hashim Amla placed South Africa in a commanding position on day two of the first Test against Bangladesh in Potchefstroom.

The Proteas maintained the dominance that saw them end the opening day at 298-1, with Amla scoring his 27th Test hundred to move level with Graeme Smith – Jacques Kallis is the only South African to have notched more at 45.

Amla became the victim of the 70,000th wicket in Test history when he holed out off Shaiful Islam (1-74) in the first over after lunch, his formidable partnership with Elgar ending after 215 runs.

The run rate slowed with the entrance of Temba Bavuma (31) and Elgar's concentration appeared to dip before he ballooned Mustafizur Rahman (1-98) to midwicket on 199, clearly dejected as he made way back.

Faf du Plessis (26) provided a shot of energy before South Africa declared on 496-3, with Bangladesh losing opening duo Liton Das (25) and Imrul Kayes (7) as they reached stumps at 127-3 and with plenty of work to do.

The runs flowed freely in the first session, with Elgar passing his previous best of 140 when he clipped Shaiful through midwicket to move onto 144 with a boundary, and he launched Mehedi Hasan for six over mid-on to continue his progress.

Amla stole two runs to bring up his ton and his union with Elgar was worth 215 when the teams went in for lunch, but Bangladesh would soon make the breakthrough.

With just the third ball of the second session Shaiful tempted Amla with a wide delivery that ended up in the arms of Mehedi, and Bavuma was unable to keep up the impressive pace.

He focused on rotating the strike to assist Elgar, who suffered a scare when an attempt to crunch a shot over the leg side turned into an edge into space behind for three runs.

There was no let off on the 30-year-old's next mistake, though. He lobbed an attempted pull shot up for a routine Mominul Haque catch and received a series of consolation pats on the back from Bangladesh players as he walked back to the pavilion.

Du Plessis found the boundary from the first two deliveries he faced and he repeated the trick before the Proteas declared at tea.

A short delivery from Kagiso Rabada (1-23) accounted for Imrul as Bangladesh suffered a setback in just the sixth over, while an outside edge off Morne Morkel (1-34) from Liton was taken at slip by Amla to leave the tourists at 36-2.

Elgar was unable to match his quality with the bat in the field as he put down Mushfiqur on six and 15, the second going for a boundary after glancing off wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock's glove.

Both those drops were off Keshav Maharaj (1-38) but he soon accounted for Mushfiqur, and Tamim Iqbal (22) closed the day's play with a thunderous six over the long-on boundary.

He will resume alongside Mominul (28) when the Tigers seek to make inroads into South Africa's imposing total.

Source: OPTA

Story first published: Saturday, September 30, 2017, 8:14 [IST]
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