The 'Staffie' gives Proteas more bite

South Africa will not remember Dean Elgar's performance in the first Test against Australia in Centurion for the right reasons.

David Warner slashed a delivery from Vernon Philander to third man, where Elgar put himself under the ball in good time, cupped his hands immaculately, leaned into a controlled dive - and dropped the catch.

Warner was 26 not out. He went on to score 115. Elgar was not even in the XI: he was fielding for an indisposed Dale Steyn. Cricket could not be more underwhelming.

Nine days later, after the first day's play in the second Test at St George's Park, Elgar went from zero to hero by scoring 83 in the first innings.

Two days earlier, a perhaps prescient Morné Morkel described Elgar as a "Staffie", as in stocky and tenacious.

Now sat in the same chair, Elgar called himself a "pie-chucker". Three days after that, in fading light and in front of a crowd frenzied by the imminence of victory, Elgar chucked one of his pies at Nathan Lyon - who edged it high onto his pad. Umpire Richard Illingworth said - or would have said - what the hell, and gave Lyon out leg before regardless.

Thanks to that, SA, smacked upside the head by Mitchell Johnson's 12/127 and smashed by 281 runs in Centurion, won by 231 runs in a believable reversal of fortunes.

Elgar had not, as AB de Villiers, JP Duminy or Hashim Amla had done, scored a century, and his left-arm slows were indeed more steak-and-kidney than turn-and-bounce.

But when it mattered - when Alviro Petersen was downed by a virus and SA wobbled to 11/2 less than six overs into the match, and when one more wicket was required to beat the next day's rain and with that Australia - the Staffie proved that his bite was at least as bad as his bark.

As a walking, talking, performing metaphor for the Proteas' comeback in the series, Elgar fits the bill perfectly. After Centurion, he took the opportunity he was given. This time, he held on with both hands.

And he did so despite having being axed from the list of nationally contracted players on the same day that he learnt he would replace Petersen in the side.

Not that Elgar can expect any special treatment for the crucial role he played in the second Test. It seems as if Petersen will regain his place, which means Elgar would be shunted back down.

"He has a hundred batting in the middle order," Russell Domingo said yesterday with reference to the 103 not out Elgar made against New Zealand in January 2013.

"But that will be decided later."

SA and Elgar know how to bounce back, regardless of what they're asked to do.