Stats: Dean Elgar and Steven Smith enter record books during the Cape Town Test

The 3rd match of the exciting Test series between South Africa and Australia started off on an even note with the hosts getting bowled out for 311 after electing to bat first. South Africa were well set towards a big score at 220/2 before a Pat Cummins’ 4-wicket haul saw them collapsing. The home team went down to 257/8 before Dean Elgar put on a fifty-run stand with Kagiso Rabada for the 9th wicket to take their total past 300.

Elgar shared an 86-run stand with Hashim Amla and a 128-run partnership with AB de Villiers for the 2nd and 3rd wickets respectively. The left-hander carried his bat by remaining unbeaten on 141. He struck 20 fours and a six during his 284-ball innings. This was the 3rd time where Dean Elgar carried the bat in the Test cricket after the 2015 Durban Test against England and the Johannesburg Test against India earlier this year.

Thus, Elgar became only the 2nd player after Windies’ Desmond Haynes to carry the bat in Test cricket on three different occasions. Including Elgar, six players have carried the bat twice in Test cricket but no one except the South African opener carried twice in a calendar year. Elgar’s innings is only the 8th occasion of a South African carrying the bat in this format. It was only the 3rd such instance for South Africa in the last 20 years with all of them recorded by Elgar.

Players carrying the bat most times in Test cricket:

South Africa’s innings came to an end with Morne Morkel edging it to Steven Smith in the slips who took his 5th catch of the innings. The Australian captain dropped quite a few catches in the last couple of months but managed to revive himself with a good effort in the field. Smith became only the 11th fielder to claim five catches in a Test inning. He is also the 2nd Australian player to do this feat after Vic Richardson.

Fielders to take five catches in an inning in Test cricket:

(Stats as on March 23, 2018)