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Johannesburg - Dean Elgar set out his stall as a future Proteas' international by scoring back-to-back centuries in the two-match four-day series against Sri Lanka A that finished this week.
Opening the batting for the South Africa A side, the Chevrolet Knights' left-hander made two centuries and two half-centuries in his four turns at the crease.
This included a knock of 172 in the second match when he carried the batting single-handed and was last man out.
He has now scored seven centuries in his last year of first-class cricket if one includes the five centuries he made in the SuperSport Series last season.
It is the sort of consistent form that is required to knock on the door for higher honours.
The series against Sri Lanka was dominated by the batsmen on both sides and it was no surprise that neither match reached a positive conclusion.
Elgar's 431 runs made him easily the leading runs scorer in the series with no other player on either side managing to reach 300.
Rilee Rossouw was South Africa's other centurion while Heino Kuhn also caught the eye in the No 6 position with several key innings, one of which got the tourists out of trouble in the second match when they trailed by nearly 200 runs on the first innings.
The bowlers found the going tough which was not surprising considering the South African team only contained one specialist spin bowler.
No bowler on either side took more than 7 wickets in the series with Quinton Friend (5) being South Africa's best performer.
It is difficult to evaluate the seamers under such batting friendly conditions.
What was highly encouraging was the form of the seamers who were with the Emerging squad on the parallel tour of Australia.
South Africa won the 40 overs competition against far more experienced teams from New Zealand and India, as well as Australia. All the games were won by convincing margins which made up for a disappointing start in the Pro20 competition.
The South African fast bowlers carried all before them with Craig Alexander taking nine wickets at an average of eight and Basheer Walters seven at an average of 16.
