PORT ELIZABETH: Faf du Plessis scored his fourth Test century but rain washed out almost the entire second day as South Africa closed on 289 for three in the second Test against West Indies on Saturday.

Only six overs were possible before lunch, during which time the Proteas added 19 runs to their overnight total for the loss of Du Plessis.

The rest of the day was a washout as heavy rain kept the players from the field, meaning an earlier start on Sunday at 1000 local time (0800 GMT) to make up some of the lost overs.

Du Plessis, 99 not out overnight, was made to wait another 90 minutes before play got underway and only faced two balls.

The first was a gift, a leg-stump half-volley from seamer Jerome Taylor that was easily dispatched to the square-leg boundary to bring up his century off 229 balls.

Taylor got it right on the second ball, though, finding a thin edge as Du Plessis looked to defend outside off stump and was caught behind by wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin.

Hashim Amla will start day three on 23 along with A.B. de Villiers, who is nine not out, looking to accelerate.

West Indies will hope to break the partnership between the home side’s two best batsmen quickly after they added a South African record of 308 for the fourth wicket in the first Test in Centurion.

The visitors will then try to run through the tail quickly with Stiaan van Zyl, playing his second game, and debutant Temba Bavuma the last remaining recognised batsmen.

Scoreboard SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings, overnight 270-2):

A.N. Petersen c Johnson b Gabriel 17 D. Elgar c Ramdin b Peters 121 F. du Plessis c Ramdin b Taylor 103 H.M. Amla not out 23 A.B. de Villiers not out 9

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-5, NB-7) 16

TOTAL (for three wkts, 94 overs) 289

FALL OF WKTS: 1-47, 2-226, 3-274.

TO BAT: S. van Zyl, T. Bavuma, V.D. Philander, D.W. Steyn, M. Morkel, Imran Tahir.

BOWLING (to-date): Taylor 22-4-74-1 (2nb, 1w); Peters 15-6-44-1; Holder 16-5-34-0 (1nb); Gabriel 15-0-52-1 (3nb); Benn 25-3-81-0 (1nb); Samuels 1-1-0-0.

WEST INDIES: K.C. Brathwaite, D.S. Smith, L.R. Johnson, M.N. Samuels, S. Chanderpaul, D. Ramdin, J.O. Holder, J.E. Taylor, S.J. Benn, S.T. Gabriel, K.K. Peters.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014