Elgar ton helps the Proteas build strong start

GALLE Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Opener Dean Elgar struck a magnificent century to steer South Africa to a strong position at tea on the opening day of the first test against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Elgar reached his second test century with a straight six off spinner Dilruwan Perera and was unbeaten on 102 at the break with South Africa cruising on 194 for one wicket.

The left-hander had three sixes and 11 fours in his innings that spanned two sessions.

With Faf du Plessis contributing 57 not out, the second-wicket stand denied Sri Lanka any success in the afternoon session as their partnership grew to 124.

Du Plessis completed his half century off 113 balls with four fours and a six.

Neither batsmen allowed the Sri Lankan spinners any chance to settle into a rhythm, using their feet well to block anything pitched on a good length or getting to the pitch of the ball to hit through the line for boundaries.

With the pitch hardly offering any assistance, Sri Lanka adopted different fielding strategies for the batsmen.

Although they did not succeed in breaking the partnership, they managed to restrict the scoring rate with the session producing just 83 runs off 32 overs.

South Africa had reached lunch on 111-1 after new captain Hashim Amla won the toss and elected to bat.

The wicket of Elgar's opening partner Alviro Petersen was the only success Sri Lanka had in the morning session.

Off-spinner Perera gave Sri Lanka the breakthrough by trapping Petersen leg before on the back foot for 34, a decision confirmed after an unsuccessful review by the batsman.

The opening partnership was worth 70 runs with Elgar having contributed exactly half of the total.