Senior pair Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara stabilized India’s innings after failing to impress the openers in the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town. Looking to register their maiden Test series win on Proteas’ soil, India won the toss and elected to bat, but bad conditions hurt them with both openers coming back early.
In-form KL Rahul failed to emulate his form in the decider of the last two Tests as he was dismissed for just 12 runs by Duane Olivier. Joe failed to check his defense and passed it to the wicketkeeper. Soon after Rahul departed, his opening partner Mayank Agarwal (15) returned to the dressing room behind him in the next over.
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Kagiso Rabada overtook Mayank, who tried to push the ball over mid-on but only took a lead as Aiden Markram made no mistake in taking a simple catch. With 33/2 on the scoreboard in just 12.2 overs, Pujara and Kohli joined hands to get India out of a difficult situation.
At lunch, India posted 75/2 between Pujara (26*) and Kohli (15*).
Pujara, who is known for his defensive approach, batted with very positive intent as he got a boundary off a loose delivery. The senior batsman, who has been under a lot of pressure to retain his place in the team, has hit four boundaries so far in this innings and looks very confident batting alongside the Indian skipper.
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Kohli, on the other hand, batted with a cautious approach in the first session. In the last few matches, Kohli looked weak on the wide outside off-stump as he bowled too many deliveries behind the stumps to hit cover drives. However, this was not the case in the first session of the Cape Town Test, with the Indian captain showing a lot of discipline when it came to dropping balls that landed outside the off-stump. He made very few changes in his technique which have worked for him till now.
Earlier, India made some changes to their playing XI from the last Test as Hanuma Vihari was replaced by a fit Kohli, while the injured Mohammad Siraj made way for Umesh Yadav. South Africa, on the other hand, decided to go with the winning combination.
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