Centurion: South African pacers led by Kagiso Rabada on Tuesday justified skipper Temba Bavuma's decision to bowl as they ran through the Indian batting unit with their sheer pace in the the opening Test being played at Super Sport Park here.
The Rohit Sharma-led India was poised at 208 for 8 before bad light and rains brought an early end to the opening's day play. The elemental adversity stopped the play after 59 overs on a day that also saw a delayed toss due to wet patches on the field.
KL Rahul was holding fort with an unbeaten 70 off 105 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes. Mohammed Siraj was unbeaten on zero when stumps were drawn.
The South African pacers were impressive in the second session as well continuing their brilliance from the first session. Especially Kagiso Rabada (5 for 44) was on right on the money as he picked four wickets inking a five-wicket haul in the innings. The right-arm pacer first dismissed Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli to break a brewing partnership. Then, he followed it up with getting rid of Ravichandran Ashwin and all-rounder Shardul Thakur. While wickets kept tumbling from the other end, wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul displayed his resilience with a knock of unbeaten 39 runs.
In the first session, the pacers troubled the opposition batters with the surface offering a lot of seam movement. As a result, India's top order struggled and the visitors were soon reduced to 24 for three. After pacers Kagiso Rabada and debutant Nandre Burger demolished the Indian top order,. Star batter Virat Kohli and Mumbaikar Shreyas Iyer took the responsibility to steady the innings. Both of them formed a solid partnership for the fourth wicket and India was 91/3 at lunch.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (5), Yashashvi Jaiswal (17) and Shubman Gill (2) fell cheaply as South African pacers breathed fire. Earlier, South Africa won the toss and elected to field. The match was delayed as a result of the wet patches on the ground. There was overnight rain here and that resulted in the delay in action on first day. The action started from 2 PM, while the toss took place at 1:45 PM.
Pacer Prasidh Krishna was making his Test debut for the national side while South Africa are playing two debutants in the form of left-arm speedster Nandre Burger and wicket-keeper batter David Bedingham.
India are eyeing their first Test series victory in South Africa by winning the two-match Test series. The pitch report revealed that the batting will get tougher as the Test progress and it might tend to slow down as the game proceeds. Also, there might be slight up and down movement from the surface as the game progresses.
Brief Scores: India: 208 for 8 in 59 overs (KL Rahul 70 batting, Kagiso Rabada 5/44).
