Mr Faf-tastic leads fightback

To Faf du Plessis goes the glory; and to Jacques Kallis - not to mention AB de Villiers.

Dale Steyn is in there somewhere too, along with Rory Kleinveldt and Morne Morkel.

There is, in fact, plenty of glory to go round in the afterglow of South Africa's magnificent fightback to save the second Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval yesterday.

But Du Plessis will own the lion's share of it for the rest of his career and, indeed, the rest of his life.

The gritty 78 the debutant scored in the first innings would have been enough to earn him several more opportunities in a Test shirt, but his undefeated 110 yesterday took him above and beyond all that.

His composure was unshakeable; his discipline was impressive; his physical and mental energies seemed bottomless. He was, in the proper telling of it, 'n donnerse yster.

He was dropped twice and, with the help of the decision review system, survived Billy Bowden's diabolical interpretation of the lbw law twice. But, for most of his seven-and-a-half hours at the crease, Du Plessis was in cool, calm control as the Australian bowlers melted in the oppressiveness of an Adelaide afternoon hot enough to melt corrugations out of a tin roof.

He had begun his vigil with AB de Villiers on the fourth afternoon and, together, they batted yesterday as if they were trying to survive a day in the Western Desert.

Whatever they taught the pair at Affies [Afrikaans Boys High, Pretoria], it was the right stuff.

They endured through stretches of five, six and three consecutive maidens, often ringed by seven fielders, and took South Africa into the second session of day five with a 68-over stand before Peter Siddle bowled De Villiers for 33.

Kallis, hobbled by a hamstring injury, bravely fended off the swarming Aussies for another 39.1 overs for his 46, which was snuffed out when he edged Nathan Lyon onto his pad and on to short leg.

The lion-hearted Siddle cleared the obstacles posed by Steyn and Kleinveldt and was close to exhaustion bowling the last over of the match. Du Plessis, job done - and then some - watched as Morkel defended four balls and hit the other two for four.

To think, Du Plessis would not have played in Adelaide had JP Duminy not ruptured his achilles tendon during the first Test.

Ironically, Duminy got his break when Ashwell Prince was injured on South Africa's tour to Australia in 2008-09. It's not a trend South Africa would want to continue, but it does show a little belief can go a long way in an untested player who understands the magnitude of the chance he's been given - and takes it. Faf du Plessis did exactly that.