The China Mail - South Africa's Elgar scores 'special' century at his home ground

Elgar, who plays his domestic cricket for the Centurion-based Northerns Titans, ended the second day on 140 not out -- his first Test century at his home ground.

It was an innings which showed brilliant composure on a testing pitch, and skill when it came to punishing loose deliveries.

It included 23 fours and came off just 211 deliveries before bad light stopped play with South Africa 256 for five, leading by 11 runs in the first innings.

The left-hander, who retires after this two-Test series, previously scored home Test centuries in Cape Town and Gqeberha (two each), Durban, Potchefstroom, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg so he was delighted to complete the set.

"It’s a special game for me, my last international fixture here, and my family and friends are watching.

"I haven't had a Test hundred at Centurion before -- it's the one that got away so I'm very happy to be on the board.

"I've now got hundreds at all the Test venues in South Africa, which is pretty cool.

"We spoke about it in the changeroom, some of the guys thought I had made a few centuries here, but I had to tell them I've been rubbish here," said Elgar, whose previous highest score at the venue was 95 against Sri Lanka in 2020.

"Conditions were in favour of the bowlers with clouds overhead and the green of the pitch, but things went my way.

"With the intensity that the Indian bowlers brought, your mindset definitely has to be to look to score, combined with your defence and leaving the ball.

"The ball is moving around and there's going to be one with your name on it, no doubt. But if you're looking to score then you get into better positions and capitalise on the ball that’s overpitched or sits up a bit," Elgar said.

Former opener Lokesh Rahul had earlier flexed his batting muscles in the visitors' middle-order as he scored 101 out of their total of 245, hitting 14 fours and four sixes.

"Batting in the middle-order, you can't plan all that much, you just have to play the situation in front of you. I tried to walk in with a free mindset. The situation was quite clear, I was batting with the tail and had to take my chances," he said.

"It was quite difficult batting out there, there was a lot of juice and help for the bowlers and South Africa exploited it really well. So I just tried to get partnerships going.

"I quite enjoy playing here because... there is a fast outfield and you can get boundaries."

G.Fung--ThChM