Proteas send message of intent for rest of India series

Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock's showing represented an important turning point for South Africa’s relatively inexperienced batting line-up as they head into an important summer that also includes a home Test series against England.

Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock scored maiden Test centuries against India as the Proteas fought back impressively on the third day of the first Test in, Visakhapatnam, on Friday.

The fact that both did it on the sub-continent represented an important turning point for South Africa’s relatively inexperienced batting line-up as they head into an important summer that also includes a home Test series against England.

- SCORECARD

Their performances, which saw the Proteas score at more than 3.5 to the over throughout the day’s play, is bound to rub off on all their teammates and give them further confidence and momentum as the current series progresses.

In all, South Africa scored 346 runs in the day’s play, which crucially cut their first innings deficit against India to a more manageable 117, with two wickets still in hand.

The Proteas suffered the early loss of Temba Bavuma to a delivery from Ishant Sharma that jagged back off the surface and kept low before Elgar and Faf du Plessis put on 115 for the fifth wicket and then Elgar and De Kock added a South African record sixth-wicket stand of 164 against India, surpassing the previous record of Andrew Hall and Zander de Bruyn.

Elgar joined an elite club of Proteas who have scored more than 150 in a Test match in India before finishing on 160 (287 balls, 18 fours and 4 sixes) while De Kock continued his golden run of form on this tour with 111 (163 balls, 16 fours and 2 sixes).

It was Elgar’s 12th century overall and De Kock’s fifth. Elgar has now scored Test centuries against seven different countries.

Du Plessis (55 off 103 balls, including eight fours and a six) also registered his highest Test score in India.

Nothing illustrated the new approach the Proteas showed on Friday than the fact that both Elgar and De Kock struck sixes to reach their centuries.

In this regard, the role of assistant batting coach Amol Muzumdar has clearly played a role.

Both India’s mainstream spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, conceded more than three runs to the over and, although they took seven of the eight wickets to fall between them – Ashwin took 5/128 for his 28th five-wicket haul – they had to bowl a lot of overs to do so.

The strong batting effort also meant that South Africa’s key bowler in the second half of the match, Keshav Maharaj, was granted a full day’s rest after the 55 overs he sent down over the first two days.

Today’s centuries were the first that the Proteas scored in a Test in India since 2010, when Hashim Amla made a double in the first Test and centuries in each innings in the second.

The Proteas are still significantly behind on the first innings, but they have sent a clear message of intent for the rest of the series and, indeed, the future of the current era under Du Plessis and head coach Enoch Nkwe.