South Africa vs Australia 2018, 4th Test, Day 4: 5 Talking points

#4 Faf du Plessis roars back to form with a ton; Elgar misses out

The captain led from the front as he scored his 8th Test ton

Faf du Plessis is not having the best of summers as a batsman. He began well with a couple of 60s in the first two Tests against India. But since that, he didn’t breach the 50-run mark. In fact, after the second Test against India in Centurion, he reached double figures only twice.

However, in the second innings of the final Test match of the summer and the series, he responded in style. Coming into bat at 94/3, Du Plessis absorbed the little pressure that was created and batted beautifully.

He attacked Nathan Lyon every time he felt the off-spinner was on top. He did get hit multiple times on his finger, the finger which kept him out of the ODI series against India. However, he kept batting. He reached his fifty in the morning session today.

With a declaration in sight, he started to up the ante. He found the boundary at regular intervals. He did slow down just a touch when he was in the 80s, but he picked up the pace as soon as he entered the 90s.

He got to his 8th Test ton with a boundary down to third man and the celebrations were on. He got out for 120 but not before he put South Africa in a commanding position.

Dean Elgar, on the other hand, battled hard. He was defending well and wasn’t distracted by the fact that Du Plessis was comfortably out-scoring him. He scored when the opportunity was there.

Although he missed out on a hundred (scoring 81 off 250 balls), the 170-run partnership he shared with Faf du Plessis pushed South Africa’s lead over 500.