Stubborn Elgar helps South Africa recover on opening day

South African captain Dean Elgar thrived on a day of old-fashioned, attritional test cricket to post a battling, curmudgeonly 77 from 237 balls to lead his country to a painstaking 218-5 at the close of play on the first day of the second test against the West Indies at the Daren Sammy Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia, on Friday.

Elgar weathered a potentially disastrous start which saw his team crash to 37-3 before Kyle Verreynne helped him add 87 for the fourth wicket on a pitch offering plenty of pace and movement for the fast bowlers as well as uneven bounce.

Elgar and Quinton de Kock (59*) then batted through most of the final session adding 79 for the fifth wicket to entirely transform the day from one of triumph for the home side to one of great hope for the tourists despite Elgar’s late dismissal to the medium pace of Kyle Mayers who swung a delivery just enough to beat the previously impervious defence.

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From 44-3 at lunch the tourists were in obvious trouble but Elgar and Verreynne (27 from 89 balls, 2x4) slowly hauled the match situation back in their favour until Verreynne was caught hooking down the legside, just five minutes before the tea break for a gritty 27 from 89 balls with two fours. The eight boundaries accumulated by the duo at that stage were the only ones in the innings.

“It was a bit tacky in the morning and obviously, with the overcast conditions, there was quite a bit of swing. After lunch when the wicket started firming up a bit it started moving a bit quicker off the wicket. That was the challenges we faced," Verryne said after the day's play.

“They got a really skilful bowling line-up, they’re really good at using the Dukes ball to their advantage – they made scoring quite tricky.”

SUBLIME DE KOCK

De Kock further transformed South Africa’s fortunes with a sublime, unbeaten 59 from 103 balls (5x4) during the only innings which made the capricious pitch look almost friendly to the batsmen.

The innings began poorly when Aiden Markram powerfully cut a wide long-hop from Shannon Gabriel to the gully where Roston Chase held onto a stinging catch to remove the opener for a third-ball duck.

Keegan Petersen edged a perfect away-swinger from 19-year-old fast bowler Jayden Seales to Jason Holder at second slip to depart for an unconvincing seven from 25 balls and Rassie van der Dussen was equally uncomfortable, particularly against Kemar Roach to whom he offered no shot to a delivery which nipped back to clip the top of off stump. Van der Dussen scored just four from 25 deliveries.

Although South Africa’s progress has been hard and laborious, if conditions remain similar for the first two or three days, it seems highly probable that a total of 250 would be extremely competitive.

“I’m quite a free-scoring player, but I found out in the first test that’s probably not the way to go on this wicket. I’ve been working a lot in the week adjusting a bit to these conditions, putting certain shots away that I’m used to playing quite often," Verryne explained.

“It was really nice to have Dean out there reminding me of those chats, of the net sessions I’ve had, and to stick to the processes we’ve been working on the last couple of days.”

The home made one change with experienced fast bowler Gabriel returning to lead the attack alongside Roach. Specialist spinner Rahkeem Cornwall was left out.

South Africa were unchanged after vice-captain Temba Bavuma recovered from the hip injury which ruled him out of the first test only to dislocate a finger in fielding practise on Wednesday.

Roach had 1-11 from nine overs at the break with Gabriel taking 1-11 from six overs and Seales 1-8 from four overs. Holder conceded just five runs from his five overs.

WEST INDIES: Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), Kieran Powell, Shai Hope, Kyle Mayers, Jermaine Blackwood, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Jason Holder, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Shannon Gabriel

SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (capt), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Quinton de Kock (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi