Staring down the barrel of a first test series defeat to New Zealand, South Africa needed to produce something bold.

Step forward Dean Elgar, with words never heard from a test captain at Hagley Oval.

"We're going to bat first".

Six days after his side slumped to one of their heaviest test defeats, with their batsmen producing piddling totals of 95 and 111, Elgar returned to the same venue, won the toss, and uttered the sentence that even surprised the Black Caps.

"Obviously we would have looked to bowl," said opposing skipper Tom Latham moments later, but Elgar had laid out his logic – there was less grass on the wicket than the first test, and it was browner, hinting at conditions offering less to the seamers and potentially bringing spin into play later, with South Africa having selected spinner Keshav Maharaj in one of three changes to their side.

However, Elgar is a blunt skipper, unafraid to deliver harsh truths, and his final words were most telling.

"As a batting unit we need to front up," he said, before walking out to the middle with Sarel Erwee to face a new-ball pairing that took 15 wickets in the first test.

Together, they rose to the challenge. The opening partnership of 111 was as big as both of South Africa's innings in the first test, and Erwee was the star in his second test, making a classy century as South Africa reached 238-3 at stumps and proved they were, finally, up for the fight.

After a rough debut, Erwee looked far more settled in his second attempt, more so than Elgar who was troubled by the swing of Tim Southee early.

But, with the pitch indeed slower and lacking the pace and bounce of the wicket from the first test, the Black Caps bowlers struggled to make inroads. They didn't bowl particularly poorly, and were disciplined, but with conditions not as favourable they were also guilty of dropping too short, and the introduction of Neil Wagner's legside short-ball barrage in the first session was proof things weren't going their way.

South Africa reached 80-0 at lunch and 163-1 at tea – the Black Caps at least keeping the scoring rate in check – with the sole wicket to fall being Elgar, who received a peach of an inswinger from Southee on 41 that hit the top of off-stump.

Luck wasn't quite in New Zealand's favour either, with three edges falling short of Daryl Mitchell at first slip, and Erwee brought up his 100, off 188 balls, in the final over before tea, pulling Wagner for four and celebrating with deserved exuberance.

He and the under-pressure Aiden Markram brought South Africa to 199-1, but the Black Caps bowlers kept fighting, and their reward was two wickets in three balls, with Markram driving expansively at Wagner and being caught at slip, before Erwee too was overly loose and was caught behind off Matt Henry.

It should have been three wickets in five balls, but Temba Bavuma's second ball was edged between Latham and Colin de Grandhomme in the slips, with neither committing to the catch, and the following ball an attempted leave skewed off his bat and, once again, fell just short of Mitchell.

Rassie van der Dussen had a lucky escape too, dropped at square leg by Will Young on seven as Henry was left ruing what could have been a sterling finish.

But, if fortune truly does favour the brave, then Elgar and his team deserve every bit of it.