India vs South Africa, 3rd Test, Day 2, Latest Updates: So it’s official now. Umpires have called stumps. Second day in a row where bad light stopped play and resulted in early stumps.
Day 1 report: Rohit Sharma continued his sensational run as a Test opener with his third ton of the series, allowing India to regain control of the proceedings after a top-order collapse in the third and final game against South Africa on Saturday.
With India reduced to 39 for three, Rohit (117 batting off 164 balls (and Ajinkya Rahane) (batting off) (shared an unbeaten) – run stand to stage the home team’s remarkable recovery.
India were 224 for three before bad light, followed by rain , forced an early end to play on day one with only six overs possible in the final session.
With his stellar effort, Rohit, who hammered 14 boundaries and four sixes, became the first Indian opener since Sunil Gavaskar to score more than two centuries in a Test series. Gavaskar had achieved the feat way back in 1970.
Rohit’s Test century number six came with a massive six off-spinner Dane Piedt. He exercised caution when Kagiso Rabada was steaming in the morning before going for his strokes.
If that was not enough, Rahane matched him at the other end and brought up his 21 st half-century off just 70 balls. Piedt, who was included in place of Senuran Muthusamy, cut a sorry figure against Rohit’s fury, giving away 43 runs in his six overs.
Debutant left-arm spinner George Linde, who replaced an injured Keshav Maharaj, ended the day with tidy figures of 11 – 1 – 40 – 0. Such was the Indian duo’s dominance after lunch that Rabada, who had a fiery opening spell of 7-4 – 15 – 2, looked listless in the second spell that read 4-0 – – 0.
Rahane matched Sharma shot for shot and at one point even had a better strike rate than his explosive Mumbai partner as he notched up his fastest half-century in India. Sharma, however, had a testing opening session as he survived on seven after reviewing an LBW successfully.
He also survived a run-out chance when he was out of crease but Zubayr Hamza’s throw from point missed the stumps. Uneven bounce with a few staying really low greeted the Indian openers in the morning as Rabada and Lungi Ngidi made full use of the conditions to give the visitors their best start of the series.
Rabada got rid of opener Mayank Agarwal (10) and Cheteshwar Pujara (0) inside the first hour of play. The first breakthrough came in Rabada’s third over when the pacer swung it away with Agarwal edging it to Dean Elgar at third slip. Rabada went on to dismiss Pujara for a duck in his fifth over following a successful review by the South Africans after the on-field umpire Richard Illingworth turned down an lbw appeal.
But it was Nortje who earned the biggest wicket as he sent back Pune Test’s double centurion Kohli after the skipper failed to read one that came back in sharply. Kohli took the review but only to be turned down with an umpire’s call and the skipper went back to the pavilion frustrated.
Earlier, 30 – year-old left-arm spinner Shabaz Nadeem became the 296 th player to represent India when he was handed a surprise Test debut less than 24 hours after being included in the squad in place of an injured Kuldeep Yadav.
In his bid to avoid the ignominy of a 3-0 whitewash, Du Plessis made as many as five changes to his team with two of them – Keshav Maharaj and Aiden Markram – being forced ones as they both are injured.
In came Ngidi, Zubayr Hamza, Heinrich Klaasen, Linde and Piedt with Vernon Philander, Theunis de Bruyn and Muthusamy being left out.
Squads
India
Virat Kohli (capt),Mayank Agarwal,Rohit Sharma,Cheteshwar Pujara,Ajinkya Rahane,Hanuma Vihari,Rishabh Pant,Wriddhiman Saha,Ravichandran Ashwin,Ravindra Jadeja,Kuldeep Yadav,Mohammed Shami,Umesh Yadav,Ishant Sharma,Shubman Gill
South Africa
Faf du Plessis(capt),Temba Bavuma,Theunis de Bruyn,Quinton de Kock,Dean Elgar, (Zubayr Hamza, (Keshav Maharaj) ,Aiden Markram,Senuran Muthusamy,Lungi Ngidi,Anrich Nortje,Vernon Philander,Dane Piedt, (Kagiso Rabada) , Rudi Second
With inputs from PTI
Updated Date:
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings