Twitter Reactions: England stifle South Africa after Elgar, Van der Dussen’s resurgence

It’s even-stevens after the first couple of days of the Newlands Test. England weren’t consistent with the bat, but made amends with the leather. After two entertaining day’s play, Faf du Plessis and Co are trailing by 54 runs with two wickets left in the first innings. South Africa lost some early wickets and it was Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen, who somewhat bailed them out of jail.

Dean Elgar makes hay  

It took only 17 balls for the Proteas to pick the last wicket and bowl the Brits out for 269. The hosts had a few jitters to start their run-chase. Stuart Broad pinned debutant Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza to exert pressure on the opposition. James Anderson joined the party and picked up Faf du Plessis, reducing South Africa to 40/3. Dean Elgar (88) and Rassie van der Dussen (68) took charge.

The duo played out 48.5 overs and put on 117 runs for the fourth wicket. They not only showed grit in the first session, but also buckled down to play out the second session, unscathed, as well. In the final session, off-spinner Dominic Bess separated the pair. Elgar played a rather agricultural stroke and Joe Root took the catch, running back from mid-off. The duo had reduced the trail to 112.

England cling on

Quinton de Kock (20) played his shots before Sam Curran dismissed him with a short ball. Van de Dussen gave a good account of himself at the SuperSport Park, and he didn’t flatter to deceive even in Cape Town. He notched a patient half-century off 131 balls. To his sheer agony, Curran found his outside-edge to send him packing. Rassie’s knock was laced with seven scorching boundaries.

The Proteas were still trailing by 69 runs with the lower-order remaining. In the last few overs of the day, the onus was on Vernon Philander and Dwaine Pretorius to get their team close to the Three Lions’ score. But Anderson removed Pretorius to tilt the game slightly in favour of the visiting team. The veteran fast bowler got rid of Maharaj to cap off a satisfactory day for the Three Lions.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to the day’s play at the Newlands: –

I appreciate the discussion on the no ball umpire.. but do you all know it’s so darn difficult for standing umpires to wear ear pieces and try to hear an edge with loud stadiums and others noises down your ear! Umpiring is a hard gig!

— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) January 4, 2020

Absolutely dead right George, @StuartBroad8 and @jimmy9 are very good bowlers and @benstokes38 should bowl more in short spells. https://t.co/rHvtceNur9

— Geoffrey Boycott (@GeoffreyBoycott) January 4, 2020

The following England Cricket get overseas Is remarkable … The whole of Newlands looks like a home game for England … We are very very lucky to have that amount of loyal support … #SAvENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 4, 2020

2 days of mediocre batting makes for very exciting test cricket! #SAvENG

— weCricket (@wecricket_) January 4, 2020

Absolute banter that England find themselves in this strong a position. What a team they are.

— Peter Miller (@TheCricketGeek) January 4, 2020

This is bubbling up to be a tremendous test match #SAvENG

— Derek Goulding (@derekgoulding) January 4, 2020

Anderson gets Maharaj on the last ball of the day.

215/8 and trailing by 54 runs.

Dean Elgar must be kicking himself for playing that shot. #SAvENG

— Sukhinder Anand (@AnandSukhinder) January 4, 2020

A decent days cricket for England for once #SAvENG 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

— AJ ⚪️ (@AJ_Yid) January 4, 2020

Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Anderson collects his third wicket. 215-8. All you couch coaches who destroyed England yesterday, I did say let's wait until we see what South Africa do before slaughtering our batsmen. Dead even game. #SAvENG

— Uncle Norman Giller (@NormanGiller) January 4, 2020

Outstanding from @englandcricket today. Kept their discipline and sometimes you just have to dig in. #SAvENG

— Simon Youngs (@Youngs_38) January 4, 2020

A great day of test cricket at Newlands. Quality fight back from @englandcricket #testcricketisbestcricket #SAvENG

— Will Mottram (@Motters23) January 4, 2020

england's day , could've been better . another outstanding cricket pitch #SAvENG

— Tony Steele (@tds122) January 4, 2020

Excellent days play @englandcricket game on for tomorrow! #SAvENG

— Jasse the Yid (@henryengland11) January 4, 2020

Is Cape Town in England? The Barmy Army is too loud there #SAvENG #SSCricket #ProteaFire

— Phumlani (@Lanin66) January 4, 2020

YES Jimmy!! Maharaj is caught behind off the last ball of the day 👏 #SAvENG

— England's Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) January 4, 2020

Brilliant comeback in that last session from the bowlers. Back on top now🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #SAvENG

— Jack Ashbourne🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@JackAshbourne) January 4, 2020

That English bowling great is just showing off with those outswingers.

Outswingers that look like fast legbreaks.#SAvENG

— Dumisani Ndumo (@Ndumo_Dumisani) January 4, 2020