Elgar, du Plessis deflate West Indies

Dean Elgar's third Test century and an unbeaten 99 from Faf du Plessis put South Africa in a dominant position at the close of day one in Port Elizabeth. On a slow pitch that offered a bit of sideways movement and uneven bounce, both batsmen benefited from missed chances during the second session and powered on in the third to propel South Africa to 270 for 2 at stumps.

Kenroy Peters, the debutant left-arm seamer, struck in the 75th over to have Elgar edging behind, but by then he had made his highest Test score and added 179 for the second wicket with du Plessis. At 226 for 2 with the second new ball imminent, West Indies had a small window to force their way back into the game, but du Plessis and Hashim Amla saw the day through without too much bother. They may have been aided in their cause by West Indies only taking the new ball in the 88th and final over of the day.

South Africa's run rate, under three an over through the first two sessions, shot up at the start of the final session as Elgar and du Plessis grew in confidence, and the loose balls grew in frequency. The shots that had been shelved before tea came out of the kitbag, and boundaries flowed as chants of ole, ole rang out in the crowd, loud enough to be heard above the brass band. Elgar reverse-swept Sulieman Benn past slip and cut him away behind point. Du Plessis clipped Jerome Taylor through midwicket and punched him off the back foot through square cover. Elgar drove Peters through the covers and past mid-on. Six fours had come in the space of four overs, and nothing was going West Indies' way.

It could so easily have been so different. West Indies chose to bowl first, and their five-man attack bowled well enough for most part to justify that decision. But the fielders simply didn't back it up. In the fourth over after lunch, du Plessis flashed at a back-of-a-length ball from Jerome Taylor and sliced it to the left of gully. Marlon Samuels only had a short way to fall to his left, and the ball was a good couple of feet above the ground, but he grabbed at it with anxious hands and couldn't hold on.

Nine overs later, du Plessis ran down the track to Benn, and was beaten by dip and turn. Going hard at the ball again, the batsman edged it. This time, it went low and a fair way to the right of Devon Smith, but again he got his hands to the ball and counted as a legitimate chance.

Next ball, it was Elgar's turn to rush out of his crease. He got too close to the pitch of the ball, and yorked himself. Elgar was stranded a long way down the pitch but Denesh Ramdin stood up too early behind the stumps - it did keep a little low, in his defence - and his gloves were nowhere near the ball, which instead thudded into his pads. Rubbing it in a little more, Elgar danced down the track and launched Benn back over his head to bring up his half-century. Benn took his cap and dragged himself away to his position at gully, and even his sunglasses couldn't hide the wounded look on his face.

Later, missed direct hits reprieved Elgar (on 73) and Amla (on 5) when they went for non-existent singles. It can be argued that these were lesser offences, but both times the batsmen were stranded halfway down the pitch and the fielders had plenty of time to aim at the stumps. Instead, they snatched at the opportunities and threw off-balance.

For all the help they got, South Africa needed to show plenty of application to score as many runs as they did. Elgar, taking guard on off stump, stayed close to the line of the ball and played the rising ball with soft hands to keep the edges down short of the slips. Shortly after reaching his hundred, this method helped him survive an excellent delivery from Taylor, angling in from around the wicket and jagging away off the pitch.

Elgar waited for anything he could work off his pads, and anything he could pull - even the marginally short ball. The slowness of the pitch usually allowed him to do this, but uncertain bounce always lurked around the corner, and he top-edged a hook into his helmet against a Shannon Gabriel lifter when he was on 83. Against Benn he used his feet well, and generally looked to hit down the ground.

Du Plessis scratched around when he first came in, and was on 6 off 35 balls at lunch. He remained jittery after the interval, surviving those two drops and sending a leading edge off Taylor flying through the gap between point and gully. But he grew in fluency as his innings progressed, as any batsman of his quality will when given so many lives.

The first session was a story of two halves. Taylor and Peters were a little loose at the start, and South Africa's openers scored 40 in the first ten overs without really looking to score that briskly. West Indies then made a double change, and Gabriel and Jason Holder immediately settled into a rhythm, finding movement from a good-length spot just outside off stump. They bowled 11 overs in tandem, giving away only 17 runs and picking up the wicket of Alviro Petersen.

The dismissal was well in keeping with how the morning had gone. It came with the score on 47 - a decent start, not a good one. It came off a steeply rising half-tracker wide outside off stump that Petersen could have easily ignored. He reached for it instead and scooped it to the backtracking cover fielder.