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Cricket-Maiden fifty from Das gives Bangladesh lead

* Hosts take first-innings lead of 78 * South Africa reach 23-0 at tea (Updates at tea) July 23 (Reuters) - A maiden half-century from wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Das helped Bangladesh take a useful first-innings lead of 78 runs over South Africa on the third day of the opening test at Chittagong on Thursday. Playing his second test, Das was out for 50 as the hosts were dismissed for 326 shortly before tea after resuming on 179-4 against the top-ranked test side. South Africa opening batsmen Stiaan van Zyl (13) and Dean Elgar (10) safely negotiated the nine overs to take their team to 23 for no loss in their second innings at the break, trailing Bangladesh by 55 runs. Das added 82 for the sixth wicket with all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (47) after Bangladesh, who had stunned the tourists 2-1 in the preceding ODI series, lost captain Mushfiqur Rahim to Dale Steyn for 28. South Africa captain Hashim Amla challenged the umpire's original not-out verdict against the leg-before appeal and managed to get it overturned. Steyn (3-78) also dismissed the last two Bangladesh batsmen to take his test tally to 399 wickets. Shakib and Das batted resolutely before steering Bangladesh, who have lost all of their previous eight meetings against South Africa, past their opponents' first-innings total of 248. Das, 20, added 38 runs with Mohammad Shahid (25) for the seventh wicket to boost the lead and was eventually caught by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock off spinner Simon Harmer. Like Steyn, Harmer also finished with three wickets. (Writing by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)