Nortje takes six wickets, Elgar scores 92 to place South Africa in driving seat

South African seamer Anrich Nortje claimed a career-best six-wicket haul and opener Dean Elgar backed it up with an unbeaten 92 runs as the house workforce cast an early benefit over Sri Lanka on the opening day of the second check.Nortje made full use of seamer-friendly circumstances at The Wanderers Stadium for a return of 6-56 off 14.3 overs as Sri Lanka collapsed from 71-1 to be dismissed for 157 earlier than tea on Sunday.Elgar then set about consolidating the benefit as he moved tantalisingly near a century on the shut of play, steering South Africa to 148 for one wicket in reply – trailing by simply 9 runs.Elgar, who resisted the temptation to push for his century within the last half hour’s play, featured in an unbeaten 114-run partnership for the second wicket with Rassie van der Dussen.Sri Lanka gained the toss and elected to bat, dropping captain Dimuth Karunaratne cheaply to a rising ball from Nortje however with Kusal Perera seeking to once more set in regards to the dwelling bowling.Perera has had a golden streak of type towards South Africa over the past two sequence between the 2 nations and regardless of little foot motion, rushed to a half century off solely 54 balls.But one unfastened shot too many noticed him perish on 60 and precipitate a procession of batsmen to and from the wicket.Seamer Wiaan Mulder, introduced belatedly into the house assault, took three wickets in 11 balls to see Sri Lanka hunch to 80-4, after which Nortje bagged common victims to finish a second check five-wicket haul.Aiden Markram was the one South African to be dismissed in reply, caught behind for 5, as debutant Asitha Fernando bagged a primary check scalp.A circumspect Van der Dussen took 26 balls to attain his opening run however picked up the scoring tempo all through the final session and can resume on 40 not out on Monday.South Africa gained final week’s first check in Pretoria by an innings and 45 runs and want to full a 2-0 sweep of the temporary sequence.