The Proteas moved to 199-4 on day two of a key tour fixture against the Indian Board President’s XI at the Dr PVG Raju ACA Sports Complex in Vizianagaram on Friday.

While quartet Dean Elgar, Theunis de Bruyn Zubayr Hamza and Faf du Plessis failed, collectively managing a mere 43 runs, opener Aiden Markram climbed to 100. His stay spanned 118 deliveries – and featured 18 fours and two sixes.

Three of the four dismissals were lbw. Markram found solid support Test vice-captain Temba Bavuma, who moved to 55 not out before bad light ended play prematurely. Bavuma stroked nine boundaries.

The first day was washed out without a ball bowled. This three-day fixture is the tourists’ final match preparation ahead of next week’s first Test against India, which will be played at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Markam effectively managed expectations earlier this week, after striking a big century for South Africa A against India A in Mysore last week.

‘It was nice to get a few runs but, like I mentioned, by no means will the wickets play in the same way as they did in the A-side matches,’ he said.

‘There are always a couple of positives in terms of spending time at the crease and I’m trying to nit-pick at those positives and take as much I can from those knocks.

‘The preparation for the Test series is going to be massive and every little bit going into the series will help.’

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