A perfect day of classical test match batsmanship helped Proteas to take the lead from 102 to 388 at the end of Day 3 with blizarant 141 from Duminy and resilient Elgar”s 127, as Proteas seen through some disciplined bowling performance from Aussies. So with 3 wickets still to get Aussie may have to do what Proteas have done in 2008 against them.
Having seen the day out on day 2 with keeping wickets well in hand Duminy and Elgar determined to play characteristic knocks as Duminy played his classical shots without any effort relying more on timing and Elgar at the other end made the bowlers to bowl at him leaving anything that is outside off.
With playing their natural game both batsmen crossed their respective fifties in the first hour and it went hard foil for bowlers as they unable to find ways to trouble the batsmen. This pair continued to play the way but Aussie bowlers couldn't find much reverse swing in the morning Session, while the crack that deteriorating produced some trouble with extra bounce although the deviation hadn't helped going well past the outside edges. In this time the pair added 80 runs in the morning session.
The second session too hadn't had much surprises although Hazelwood, Siddle and Marsh bowled their heart out but haven't get any results except few inside edges through reversing the ball, While in the 77th over from Lyon Starc misjudged a mistimed lofted shot from Elgar and Duminy hit a six of the next delivery adding more pain to the wound.
So with less risk Cricket both the players marched to their 5th ton in their careers and Duminy played much more fluently after that but Elgar stuck to his game with his circumspect style. And the pair brought up their 200 run partnership along the way, with adding another 50 runs to the partnership Duminy dismissed at the Stroke of Tea on seeing a wide and short delivery he went after it but could only edge it to Nevill.
So with the wicket at the Stroke of tea Aussie bowlers came in with hope and bowled the disciplined lines as they did all the day, but later the dismissal of Elgar not came due to great bowling but a lapse in concentration done with Elgar after a well made 127. While with two set batsmen out in the pavilion Aussie attacked more and Duplessis made quite runs with bad balls on offer, but at the other end Bevuma who seemed in good touch couldn't kept the pull down the ground as he found Khawaja at deep square leg who anticipated early.
While Marsh was rewarded finally with that wicket of Bevuma and he was economical in the bowling chart the end of the day, Later Dekock joined their skipper and he hadn't looked comfortable with close in fielders early on. In this time he mistimed a short ball from Starc and the ball which lobbed in the air for a while misjudged by Voges, after that he looked to time at the crease. But at the other end Starc struck with angling the ball away from Duplessis which in turn got the Protea skipper, while Philander and Dekock played some positive shots to keep the bowlers at their knees. At the end of Day 3 Philander 23 and Dekock 16 are at the crease, as Proteas lead by 388 runs and indeed opened a much anticipated play for later two days.
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