South African opener Dean Elgar played a stellar innings, scoring an unbeaten 140 runs to give the hosts an 11-run lead over India on day two of the first test at Centurion on Wednesday. The 36-year-old announced his retirement from international cricket last week, which he believes allowed him to play with freedom and produce one of his best innings. At the end of day two, South Africa were 256-5 in reply to India’s first innings’ total of 245.
Elgar expressed his intention to play with freedom during the match and said, “I wanted to play with a bit of freedom.” He played 211 balls and hit 23 fours to reach his milestone score. Elgar, who made his test debut in 2012 and has played 84 matches since, credited his good form in the domestic season for his confidence against the highly rated Indian team.
He said, “I know people say it’s only domestic cricket and you still have to do the time in the middle but I’ve been in some really good form with the bat coming into the series and I was pretty confident. I don’t have a lot to lose now, do I? It’s my last series and I want to play with a bit of freedom.”
Elgar added, “But I still want to perform, I still want to contribute to the side and still want to get us into winning positions, still want to score test hundreds. Today the luck was all on my side.” This century was Elgar’s 14th in test cricket, but the first at his home ground.
He expressed his pride in the achievement, stating, “It’s the one place where I’ve really wanted to score a test ton. I got 95 against Sri Lanka, buggered that one up and I thought today luck is on my side so I need to try and cash in and I’m extremely proud of it.”
Elgar reached his century after lunch and noted that the pitch had eased off a little as the day wore on. “Yes, obviously once you get in but you’ve got to earn that right, getting through 30 overs and the new ball,” he added. “It was moving around but definitely got a little bit easier after lunch and I came out with a little bit more positive intent, looking to score.
“I think you have to have that mindset of looking to score on a wicket like this. You’ve got to try and capitalise where you can.”
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Ken Ferris)
