INDIA STAND FIRM
Brilliant Bumrah and Kohli lead resistance
JASPRIT Bumrah struck twice at the start of South Africa’s second innings after Indian captain Virat Kohli hit a magnificent century on the third day of the second Test at SuperSport Park yesterday.
South Africa were 60 for two at tea, an overall lead of 88. They added eight more runs before the threat of lightning, soon followed by rain, stopped play shortly after tea.
Kohli made 153 in India’s first innings of 307 before he was last man out, caught in the deep off Morne Morkel, who took four for 60.
Despite Kohli’s efforts, South Africa had a first-innings lead of 28. This was soon rendered insignificant when Bumrah reduced South Africa to three for two.
Aiden Markram was Bumrah’s first victim, falling leg before wicket as he played back to a ball which cut back and kept low.
Bumrah followed up with the wicket of Hashim Amla, who was also trapped on the back foot by a ball which cut back.
Both batsmen were so palpably in front of their stumps that neither sought a review.
India had opened the bowling with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and he troubled lefthanded opening batsman Dean Elgar.
But Elgar survived to share an unbroken 57-run partnership with AB de Villiers, who batted confidently to be on 33 not out at tea.
Kohli was largely untroubled as he scored his runs off 217 balls with 15 fours. But there was only one substantial partnership after India resumed on 183 for five. Kohli and Ashwin (38) put on 71 for the seventh wicket before the second new ball hastened the end of the innings.
Meanwhile, England allrounder Ben Stokes has been charged with affray by prosecutors regarding his alleged involvement in an incident outside a nightclub in September, prosecutors announced yesterday.
The confrontation left a man with a fractured eye socket and saw Stokes suspended from international cricket until “further notice” by the England and Wales Cricket Board, meaning he missed the Ashes series in Australia.