South Africa push India on the backfoot despite Virat’s fifty
South Africa fast bowlers turn the screws on a bouncy Wanderers track as India crawl to 114/4 at tea
JOHANNESBURG: India rode a gutsy fifty from Virat Kohli but lost both the captain and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane in a session they should have capitalised a snailslow start. At tea on Day 1, India were 114/4 from 53 overs with Cheteshwar Pujara still holding one end with a patient 145-ball 27 and Parthiv Patel on 0.
India added 69 runs from 26 overs in the post-lunch session, courtesy an attacking 54 from Kohli who didn’t want to sit back and get overwhelmed by a fiveman South Africa seam attack. His brazen approach brought about his fall but not before had crafted a fine 54 that put India on track after they were 13/2.
However, India need to cross at least 250 in the first innings to justify their decision to bat on a green pitch that was juiced up by overnight rain. Anything less than that and South Africa know they have done their job. Runs did come at a premium in the morning session where 16 out of the 27 overs bowled were maidens.
Such was the appearance of the pitch that it prompted both sides to go in without a specialist spinner. Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned after sitting out of Centurion while India gave Ajinkya Rahane a place in the team at last, at the expense of Rohit Sharma. Pujara took 54 balls to open his account as hosts’ seamers made him hop and lure him into shots
that were just not there in the morning session. Pujara looked solid in the afternoon but it was Kohli who posed the real threat.
His defence wasn’t tight as well. But the India captain managed to plug that with nine boundaries in one of his most difficult innings ever. Chances came South Africa’s way too. Vernon Philander dropped Kohli’s miscued pull of Kagiso Rabada before Ngidi induced an inside edge off a ball Kohli was trying to leave.
AB de Villiers, of all fielders, then dropped a sitter when Kohli chased a very short and wide delivery from Morne Morkel and only got the toe-end of the bat to connect. In Morkel’s next over, Kohli got an inside edge that flew just above his stumps. Kohli wasn’t perturbed though as he took his chances and drove gloriously to complete a fifty that should have been consolidated.
Still, India did well enough to overcome an early wobble. The slightest movement was what Philander needed to get an inside edge off KL Rahul who looked clueless. A superb first spell of 8-7-1-1 helped Philander literally choke all chances of scoring by hitting the good length with nagging consistency.
It was off Philander that Pujara got his first two boundaries in the second session. He first cut Philander to point before caressing him through the covers. But it was Kohli who was shouldering the scoring burden with Pujara not even rotating the strike. India scored 52 runs in the 17.4 overs after lunch till Kohli was dismissed. The 62 deliveries after that produced only 17 runs.
Rahane tried to accelerate, driving Morkel for a boundary. Rahane’s innings however didn’t gather much momentum as Morkel trapped him leg-before that couldn’t be overturned with a review.