Elgar embraces a different challenge

BJ Watling collected the first ball of the day at his ankles. And the fifth at his waist. The 11th was taken just off the floor and the one after that, around hip height.

By the time Dean Elgar faced a delivery, the 14th of the morning, Watling had provided an action replay of the children's song and caught the ball everywhere from his head to his shoulders, his knees to his toes. Elgar must have been wondering what was going on. He would not have been the only one.

Dunedin's new groundsman Mike Davies had presented the teams with an unusually dark greeny-brown pitch, a shade most of the locals did not recognise as regular. Still, they expected it to be slow and dry and New Zealand seemed to agree, so much so that they left out their vice-captain Tim Southee in favour of a twin-spin attack. They introduced the first of them, Jeetan Patel, in the sixth over.

For Elgar, this was a challenge quite different to any of those he had overcome before. It didn't have the heat and humidity of Galle, where he scored his coming-of-age hundred almost three years ago, but a biting cold. It didn't require the desperation of his Durban hundred against England when South Africa had just returned from humiliation in India. Neither did it have the expectation of his recent Australian century, in Perth, on the back of Dale Steyn's injury and a stirring comeback from the rest of the attack. This situation called for a different kind of application: a unique combination of stubbornness and resourcefulness that Elgar embodies.

"Neil is a Wagner."

That would seem obvious, wouldn't it?

But the debate over the pronunciation of his Afrikaans last name has been going on for months. The man himself insists it's said as it's spelt: wag the dog and then the rest. His childhood friends, many of whom are in this current South African team, know that it's said with much more of the guttural vigour of the language he used to speak - Afrikaans. "Vaaggggnner," they call him. Elgar also said so after the day's play. But the Dunedin crowd took it on themselves to remind South Africa that Wagner, and his name, belong to them now. Their song had the same tune as the Wanderers' crowd's, "Siddle is a w*****", and completely the opposite meaning. If anything, that would only have spurred have South Africa, and a character like Elgar on.

Pre-match, both men had talked up their rivalry as severe. Wagner went as far as saying they "hated" playing against each other but it may have been merely bluster. With school records not readily available, we don't know how many times Wagner's Affies and Elgar's St Dominic's College clashed but we do know they seem to have some unfinished business against each other and Elgar owned the early exchanges.

His first shot in anger came off Wagner, who was searching the fuller length that University Oval demands, and allowed Elgar to lean into a drive. Wagner didn't bowl again until 15 overs later and then inflicted two major blows on South Africa in the same over. He bowled Hashim Amla and had JP Duminy caught at slip on the pull and left it up to Elgar to arrest the slide and see off an old enemy. Elgar took it in his stride.

While Wagner gave Faf du Plessis a stern examination by late swing, he offered Elgar some freebies. A delivery that was too straight, another that just didn't get up and plenty to feed his leg-side preference. Elgar dealt well with New Zealand's most successful bowler of the day, but that was not his biggest battle.

Trent Boult caused many more problems upfront with a strangling nine-over opening spell that included five maidens that cost only eight runs. The spinners slowed things down even more to keep South Africa almost silent and then, just when the pitch seemed to normalise under some sun, Boult returned with the ball that should have removed Elgar. It was nothing special and was going down leg but Elgar missed his flick and edged to Watling, who could not hold on.

Boult reminded Elgar that even the slightest lapse in concentration could prove costly. That he would have to restart his innings almost every ball. Elgar is the kind of batsman who is not afraid of some hard grind but in Dunedin, he showed he could do that at the rate of the proverbial slow clap. He stuck it out even when it was becoming long and he got some reward. Width from Boult, some deliveries that were over-pitched from Patel, some hit-me balls from Jimmy Neesham. Those were the highlights, the rest was, in Elgar's words "a scrap" which was why he was so suited to playing the situation. "I am not very talented and free-scoring like other guys are, so you've got to use your advantages, and that's obviously my ability to guts it out and grind it," Elgar said.

That skill gave South Africa the day. But for a moment of lapsed concentration from du Plessis, who successfully reviewed being given out lbw before gifting backward square leg a catch in the same over, they controlled proceedings to stumps albeit not in an overly domineering way. Run-scoring remained slow and caution was key, especially when the second new ball was taken and Boult arrived again.

In his first over on return, he almost had Elgar again. Despite spending all day at the crease, Elgar wasn't sure whether to play or leave a full delivery that angled away and almost chopped it on. "This game is difficult," Elgar confessed.

Nobody knows that more than Elgar's current batting partner. Temba Bavuma had not crossed 21 in seven Test innings before this and came into this series under scrutiny. Had AB de Villiers been available, Bavuma may not have played at all. But at the end of the day, he had composed a classy 38 and "looks the best I've seen him in his career so far," according to Elgar. "This game brings pressure and you can either use it to your advantage or can fade away and he is the kind of character that will use it to his advantage. That's the characters we want in the side. He's just got to bide his time and keep doing what he did today," Elgar said.