India captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday praised his South Africa counterpart Dean Elgar who will be playing his farewell game in the second and final Test starting here on Wednesday but said his team will do its best to win the match and salvage the two-match. India had lost the first Test at Centurion by an innings and 32 runs with Elgar scoring a match-defining 185 off 297 deliveries that helped the hosts post 408 in their first innings. Dean Elgar has been a thorn in the side of India, both as a player and captain in recent years. Elgar led by example the last time India toured South Africa, finishing as the second-highest run-getter in the series with 235 runs, as the Proteas completed a comeback from 1-0 to win 2-1. Most recently, Elgar was the Player of the Match in the first Test with a stunning 185 that blew India out of the game. The visitors succumbed to an innings defeat, extending their wait for a series victory in South Africa. Elgar, playing his final international match, will captain South Africa in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who suffered an injury during the first Test. In the pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Rohit Sharma was effusive in his praise for his opposite number but wants to halt the southpaw in his final outing. “He’s been their mainstay for a number of years now. Gets a lot of runs against us for sure but again a quality player,” Rohit said. “Somebody who puts a big price on his wicket and doesn’t throw it away just like that. [You have] got to get him out. “It will be important if we can get him early and try to see what the other batters do with him not being there. We know how important he is to them. He likes to score big runs and bat long as well. “We have got our plans. Hope it works out for us, it clearly didn’t work out in the last game but hopefully, it will [in the next match]. Hopefully, we can make it [his last match] miserable [laughs],” said Rohit. El

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