Twitter Reactions: England stifle South Africa after Elgar, Van der Dussen’s resurgence

It’s even-stevens after the first couple of days of the Newlands Test. England weren’t consistent with the bat, but made amends with the leather. After two entertaining day’s play, Faf du Plessis and Co are trailing by 54 runs with two wickets left in the first innings. South Africa lost some early wickets and it was Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen, who somewhat bailed them out of jail.

Dean Elgar makes hay  

It took only 17 balls for the Proteas to pick the last wicket and bowl the Brits out for 269. The hosts had a few jitters to start their run-chase. Stuart Broad pinned debutant Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza to exert pressure on the opposition. James Anderson joined the party and picked up Faf du Plessis, reducing South Africa to 40/3. Dean Elgar (88) and Rassie van der Dussen (68) took charge.

The duo played out 48.5 overs and put on 117 runs for the fourth wicket. They not only showed grit in the first session, but also buckled down to play out the second session, unscathed, as well. In the final session, off-spinner Dominic Bess separated the pair. Elgar played a rather agricultural stroke and Joe Root took the catch, running back from mid-off. The duo had reduced the trail to 112.

England cling on

Quinton de Kock (20) played his shots before Sam Curran dismissed him with a short ball. Van de Dussen gave a good account of himself at the SuperSport Park, and he didn’t flatter to deceive even in Cape Town. He notched a patient half-century off 131 balls. To his sheer agony, Curran found his outside-edge to send him packing. Rassie’s knock was laced with seven scorching boundaries.

The Proteas were still trailing by 69 runs with the lower-order remaining. In the last few overs of the day, the onus was on Vernon Philander and Dwaine Pretorius to get their team close to the Three Lions’ score. But Anderson removed Pretorius to tilt the game slightly in favour of the visiting team. The veteran fast bowler got rid of Maharaj to cap off a satisfactory day for the Three Lions.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to the day’s play at the Newlands: –