South Africa made a good start as they scored 107 runs losing just one wicket against Bangladesh during their second Test of the two-match series at Port Elizabeth on Friday.
Elgar reached his third consecutive fifty in the Test series, when he reached his half-century off 66 balls, in the 22nd over. He had made a similarly quick start in the first Test when he reached 60 at lunch, with his side at 95 for no loss.
This time however Elgar lost opening partner Sarel Erwee when the left-hander fell to Khaled Ahmed’s away going delivery in the 12th over. Erwee, who made 24, survived a close call in the third over of the morning when Khaled made a loud lbw appeal. The umpire turned it down, but Mominul Haque too was late at taking the review. Replays showed it was red on all three counts, and would have overturned the decision had Bangladesh been prompt at the review.
But Elgar turned things around at his end, scoring runs quite regularly as he reached his fifth 50-plus score against Bangladesh in his last six innings against this side. During the session, Elgar also went past Jacques Kallis as highest scorer in St George's Park.
South Africa captain Dean Elgar won the toss and elect to bat first .
Bangladesh made two changes as opener Tamim Iqbal and left arm spinner Taijul Islam came in replacing Shadman Islam and injured pacer Taskin Ahmed. South Africa remain unchanged.
Bangladesh, without Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam, looked bereft of ideas. Mominul tried to rotate his four bowlers quite regularly, even opening the bowling with Mehidy Hasan Miraz who became the first spinner in 87 years to open the bowling in the first innings in South Africa.
Meanwhile, Dean Elgar has told Bangladesh to "harden up" and accept the tough talk of Test cricket even as Mominul Haque denied complaining about excessive sledging after the Durban match. Bangladesh expressed their intent to lodge an official objection over both South Africa's conduct and the umpiring at Kingsmead in the immediate aftermath of their defeat, which Elgar felt was an overreaction, especially since he felt Bangladesh were equally vociferous.
"I don't think they're justified, whatsoever. We play the game hard, and if anything we were just giving back what we were getting when we were batting," Elgar said before the second Test in Gqeberha. "It is Test cricket. It's a man's environment when it comes to playing at this level, and I intend to play the game hard. By no means did we swear or use foul language towards the Bangladeshi cricketers, because we respect them. We were just giving them back what we were receiving. I think they need to harden up and play the game at a level that maybe they're not used to. We received it first, and we responded in that way."