Dean Elgar's Century Cruising South Africa's 1st Innings
South Africa is in a massive pressure at the first day of the 3rd test against Australia in Cape Town. This ground's pitch is flat enough to bat frequently and that's what Proteas were doing until AB de Villiers got out in 62nd over by Pat Cummins.South Africa's middle order got collapsed but they're still hoping for a big score because of Dean Elgar's presence at the crease. Elgar played a superb innings of 121* runs and today he's going to start the second day with a big responsibility in his hand. He'll have Kagiso Rabada as his batting partner. This is Mashhud Hasan and today I'm going to talk about Dean Elgar's heroic innings.
South Africa lost their first wicket at 6 runs when Aiden Markram got caught out by Hazlewood's bowling. Then Elgar had a solid partnership with Hashim Amla. They've built 86 run partnership where Amla's contribution was 31. Then after Amla got out, South africa passed their best time of the day when Elgar and de Villiers built a mammoth partnership of 128 runs where de Villiers contributed 64 runs. Once South Africa's score was 220-2 but soon it turned out into 242-6 after their middle order collapsed badly. This also brings a question that if de Kock, Temba Bavuma deserves to be in the test team or not because they've been playing in this format for a long time still they aren't delivering the performance that everyone are anticipating from them. This year de Kock played 6 test matches, batted 10 innings and scored only 186 runs with an average of 18.6 and scored only one fifty. Bavuma has been continuing with his bad form for even a longer period. since 2016, Temba Bavuma has scored 610 runs with an average of only 30.5 and scored 5 fifties. and yesterday he scored only 1 run out of 12 balls. This is not that bad but for a big team like South Africa, their middle order should've played a huge role. Another negative side is, their captain and one of their dependable batsmen Faf du Plessis is in really bad form. This year du Plessis scored 218 runs with an average of only 21.8 and scored 2 fifties out of 11 innings. Yesterday he scored 5 runs out of 14 balls. Till now, his batting average of this series is only 8.75 which is definitely frustrating for him and his team. Yesterday lower middle orders and tail-enders have also failed to stay at the crease. In such condition, Dean Elgar fought like a one-man army. He had to bat alone and still he scored a huge innings and made South Africans' dream alive. His score can't explain how good his innings was. He played very technically, never let his temperament down and always batted with constant calmness.
The amount of balls that he faced yesterday shows how much patiency he showed during the period of his savior innings. He scored 121* out of 253 balls with a healthy test strike-rate of 47.82 and hit 17 fours & a six. He didn't really do any footwork attempts but his shot selections were calculative and placements were accurate. He handled Mitchell Starc's vicious out-swings with all of those well-timed square cuts. He also played some beautiful cover drives and on-drives over the pacers of Australia. Which is the reason 64% of his runs were scored through the cover and mid-wicket. He played many flicks and leg glances through the mid-wicket over Cummins and Hazlewood. That's why flick was his most productive shot yesterday. He scored 27 runs by playing this shot. He scored 25% of his runs through the long-on & long-off. He was aggressive against Nathan Lyon. Lyon's off-breaks are always dangerous against left-arm batsmen. He bowled out in-form Shakib Al Hasan 3 times at their Bangladesh tour series. But Elgar didn't show any sign of struggle but he played very fluently over Lyon. He came to down the track and played some aggressive on-drives. He also smashed one of Lyon's deliveries at the down the track through the long-on and scored a six with that shot. In such fast wicket of Cape Town, he played very well even without implementing his footwork and hit most of his shots with well timing and accurate placing. Overall Elgar's unbeaten innings is the light of hope for South Africa's innings.
Dean Elgar is in brilliant form since 2017. He didn't perform well at 2016. In that year he scored 403 runs with an average of only 31. At 2017, he was the 3rd highest run scorer among all test players. In that year he scored 1128 runs with an average of 53.71 and scored 5 centuries with 4 fifties. Same year he scored his highest innings of 199 runs against Bangladesh at Potchefstroom. This year he is the 2nd highest run scorer till now. He scored 406 runs with an average of 45.11 and scored 1 centuries with 3 fifties. Currently his total career run is 3060 with an average of 42.5 and has 11 centuries with 11 fifties. After 2016, he has changed a lot, he got more matured, upgraded his batting a lot and erased almost all of his technical errors that he used to have in his batting. Currently he's the best test opener in my eyes and still has a long way to go to cement his legacy as a legend. South africa has produced a lot of batting legends including Jacques Kallis,Gary Kirsten,Hansie Cronje,Graeme Smith,Herschelle Gibbs,Daryll Cullinan,AB de Villiers,Hashim Amla and many. Currently Dean Elgar's innings of unbeaten 121 runs is a light of hope for South Africans and another big step to be one of the greatest batsmen in South Africa's history of cricket
South Africa lost their first wicket at 6 runs when Aiden Markram got caught out by Hazlewood's bowling. Then Elgar had a solid partnership with Hashim Amla. They've built 86 run partnership where Amla's contribution was 31. Then after Amla got out, South africa passed their best time of the day when Elgar and de Villiers built a mammoth partnership of 128 runs where de Villiers contributed 64 runs. Once South Africa's score was 220-2 but soon it turned out into 242-6 after their middle order collapsed badly. This also brings a question that if de Kock, Temba Bavuma deserves to be in the test team or not because they've been playing in this format for a long time still they aren't delivering the performance that everyone are anticipating from them. This year de Kock played 6 test matches, batted 10 innings and scored only 186 runs with an average of 18.6 and scored only one fifty. Bavuma has been continuing with his bad form for even a longer period. since 2016, Temba Bavuma has scored 610 runs with an average of only 30.5 and scored 5 fifties. and yesterday he scored only 1 run out of 12 balls. This is not that bad but for a big team like South Africa, their middle order should've played a huge role. Another negative side is, their captain and one of their dependable batsmen Faf du Plessis is in really bad form. This year du Plessis scored 218 runs with an average of only 21.8 and scored 2 fifties out of 11 innings. Yesterday he scored 5 runs out of 14 balls. Till now, his batting average of this series is only 8.75 which is definitely frustrating for him and his team. Yesterday lower middle orders and tail-enders have also failed to stay at the crease. In such condition, Dean Elgar fought like a one-man army. He had to bat alone and still he scored a huge innings and made South Africans' dream alive. His score can't explain how good his innings was. He played very technically, never let his temperament down and always batted with constant calmness.
The amount of balls that he faced yesterday shows how much patiency he showed during the period of his savior innings. He scored 121* out of 253 balls with a healthy test strike-rate of 47.82 and hit 17 fours & a six. He didn't really do any footwork attempts but his shot selections were calculative and placements were accurate. He handled Mitchell Starc's vicious out-swings with all of those well-timed square cuts. He also played some beautiful cover drives and on-drives over the pacers of Australia. Which is the reason 64% of his runs were scored through the cover and mid-wicket. He played many flicks and leg glances through the mid-wicket over Cummins and Hazlewood. That's why flick was his most productive shot yesterday. He scored 27 runs by playing this shot. He scored 25% of his runs through the long-on & long-off. He was aggressive against Nathan Lyon. Lyon's off-breaks are always dangerous against left-arm batsmen. He bowled out in-form Shakib Al Hasan 3 times at their Bangladesh tour series. But Elgar didn't show any sign of struggle but he played very fluently over Lyon. He came to down the track and played some aggressive on-drives. He also smashed one of Lyon's deliveries at the down the track through the long-on and scored a six with that shot. In such fast wicket of Cape Town, he played very well even without implementing his footwork and hit most of his shots with well timing and accurate placing. Overall Elgar's unbeaten innings is the light of hope for South Africa's innings.
Dean Elgar is in brilliant form since 2017. He didn't perform well at 2016. In that year he scored 403 runs with an average of only 31. At 2017, he was the 3rd highest run scorer among all test players. In that year he scored 1128 runs with an average of 53.71 and scored 5 centuries with 4 fifties. Same year he scored his highest innings of 199 runs against Bangladesh at Potchefstroom. This year he is the 2nd highest run scorer till now. He scored 406 runs with an average of 45.11 and scored 1 centuries with 3 fifties. Currently his total career run is 3060 with an average of 42.5 and has 11 centuries with 11 fifties. After 2016, he has changed a lot, he got more matured, upgraded his batting a lot and erased almost all of his technical errors that he used to have in his batting. Currently he's the best test opener in my eyes and still has a long way to go to cement his legacy as a legend. South africa has produced a lot of batting legends including Jacques Kallis,Gary Kirsten,Hansie Cronje,Graeme Smith,Herschelle Gibbs,Daryll Cullinan,AB de Villiers,Hashim Amla and many. Currently Dean Elgar's innings of unbeaten 121 runs is a light of hope for South Africans and another big step to be one of the greatest batsmen in South Africa's history of cricket
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