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Cape Town - Proteas opener Dean Elgar has hailed team-mate Temba Bavuma on the fight he showed during the third Test at The Oval.
Bavuma scored a gutsy 52 off 120 balls in the first innings, which saw the Proteas avoid the follow-on and took the side to 175 all out in reply to England's first innings 353.
Bavuma then went on to score 32 in the second innings as the Proteas lost the third Test by 239 runs.
In the four-match series thus far, Bavuma has scored 199 runs, including two half-centuries.
Elgar, who shared a fifth-wicket partnership of 108 with Bavuma, told reporters how impressed he was with the character Bavuma showed against a quality England seam attack.
"Temba has shown a lot of growth over the last month," said Elgar.
"He looks extremely focused and to be honest his game plan is the best out of all our batters.
"It's difficult when you're doing so well and you want to get over the line by scoring a hundred and sometimes it's trying too hard.
"I felt he was really unlucky... I felt for him, he showed a massive amount of fight and his ability to adapt to different scenarios in the game has been a massive positive for him," said Elgar.
"It's those encounters that will help him grow as a player but I really think Temba is going to really crack on and score some big runs soon.
"He is obviously a player who is under pressure back home to score some runs, which is funny because his always been the one who has done so," said Elgar.
"I'm a big Temba Bavuma fan just because of his character. He is a small man in stature but he packs a massive punch. I quite like that about him."
