CRICKET
Day 1: SA grab the honours, bowl out India
Virat Kohli scored a brilliant knock of 79 runs today that helped India to reach the score of 223 runs in the first innings.
Kagiso Rabada grabbed 4 wickets.
South Africa also lost their skipper, Dean Elgar, before stumps on day 1.
India 1st innings 223 all-out
Kohli 79 Rabada 4-73 Pujara 43 Jansen 3-55 Pant 27 Maharaj 1-14
South Africa 1st innings 17-1
Markram 8* Bumrah 1-0 Maharaj 6*
Bumrah dismissed the South African skipper Dean Elgar on a superb delivery that got a thick edge that went towards the first slip where Chateshwar Pujara took a comfortable catch.
Markram and the night watchman Maharaj survived the remaining overs to end day 1 with a score of 17-1.
Earlier, India won their 10th consecutive toss in international cricket and elected to bat first.
Solid start bt Indian openers
The Indian openers batted well in the first half-hour to survive the tough period with the new ball.
But South Africa picked up 2 quick wickets as both the Indian openers departed in back-to-back overs.
Duanne Olivier first dismissed the in-form KL Rahul in the 12th over of the innings.
Rahul edged the ball straight into the wicketkeeper’s hand after scoring only 12 runs.
In the very next over, Kagiso Rabada bowled a superb length delivery to Mayank Agarwal that got a thick edge and went into the hands of Markram in the second slips.
After losing back-to-back wickets, Pujara and Kohli removed the pressure by scoring a brilliant 62 runs partnership for the 3rd wicket.
Cheteshwar Pujara scored most of the runs in this partnership.
Pujara was batting well but Jansen bowled a perfect delivery by using the angle from round the wicket and Pujara got a thick inside that went straight into the keeper’s gloves.
Pujara got out after scoring 43 runs from 77 balls including 7 boundaries.
Rahane’s poor form
Ajinkya Rahane had a very short stay at the crease as he was dismissed by Rabada after scoring only 9 runs.
He was given caught behind out by the umpire on a superb delivery bowled by Rabada.
Rahane also took the review against the decision but ultra edge confirmed that there was a spike when the ball passed near the bat.
After losing 4 wickets on 116 runs, Pant supported Kohli a bit by building up a partnership of 51 runs, but after scoring only 27 runs.
He got out while trying to play an aggressive shot over gully but due to some extra bounce he gave a sample catch to the fielder.
Both the Indian all-rounders failed to score runs at the crucial stage of the innings.
Ashwin was given caught behind out after scoring only 2 runs while Shardul Thakur departed after smashing 12 runs including a six and a four.
None of the lower order batters supported Virat Kohli and that’s why the whole Indian team was all-out on just 223 runs on the first day of the match.
Kagiso Rabada was excellent with the ball today as he picked up 4 important wickets in the first innings today.
Marco Jansen also claimed 3 wickets.
Kohli shines with a superb knock
Virat Kohli was making a comeback in the playing 11 today as he missed the previous test match due to an injury.
He scored a magnificent knock of 79 runs today, he helped his side to pass the 200 runs mark in the first innings.
Kohli looked very solid and played patiently when the wickets were falling at regular intervals from the other end.
Finally, Virat was dismissed by Rabada on a shorter delivery that got a thick inside edge into the wicketkeeper’s hands.