Opener Dean Elgar's seventh century has helped South Africa reach a commanding position in the opening Test against New Zealand in Dunedin.
The 29-year-old left-hander's 128 not out on Wednesday anchored his side's first innings as they reached 4-229 at stumps.
It continues a purple patch for Elgar, after scores of 45, 52, 129, 55 and 27 against Sri Lanka and 127 against Australia in November in Perth. He is just two runs shy of matching his best Test score.
New Zealand gave him a life on 36, when wicketkeeper BJ Watling dropped a leg-side edge off the bowling of Trent Boult.
However, apart from a few loose shots at the end of the day, he showed discipline and composure in hitting 22 fours.
New Zealand are underdogs against the world's third-ranked Test side.
In the morning, they surprisingly dropped regular opening bowler Tim Southee so they could play two spinners, the first time at home for seven years.
The match is groundsman Mike Davies' first Test and the pitch, which started with an unusual dark brown appearance and offered little bounce for the quick bowlers.
However, neither offspinner Jeetan Patel, who came on in the sixth over, nor Mitchell Santner could earn a wicket, despite Patel testing the batsmen early in the day with spin and bounce.
In the previous 22 Tests on New Zealand soil, the toss-winning captain has chosen to bowl first to take advantage of green pitches.
However, Faf du Plessis confounded that school of thought and chose to bat after correctly calling the coin.
He might have been regretting that a little when his side were teetering at 3-22 but, with the pitch improving, he and Elgar put on 126 for the fourth wicket.
Du Plessis was on 52 when he was given out lbw but a DRS appeal overturned umpire Kumar Dharmasena's decision.
However, he didn't last much longer when, later in the over, he hooked Jimmy Neesham to Trent Boult waiting on the midwicket boundary.
Neil Wagner finished with 2-59, Boult 1-44, Neesham 1-29, Patel 0-60 and Santner 0-32.
