Centurion — South Africa will have to score 305 to pull off a highly unlikely win in the first Test against India at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
The tourists were dismissed for 174 midway through the extended afternoon session on Wednesday.
At tea South Africa were 21/1, after Aiden Markram, looking very tentative facing his nemesis from the first innings Mohammed Shami, chopped the third ball of the second over onto his stumps after scoring one.
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Dean Elgar on nine and Keegan Petersen on 12 will resume for the final session.
Rishabh Pant top scored with 34, in what was a disjointed batting performance, although the Indians will take solace from all the trouble they had and believe they can cause the Proteas a whole lot more in the final innings of the match, on a pitch where the ball bounces inconsistently off a full-ish length.
With their lead already over 200 at lunch, there was a relaxed air in the visiting change-room at the resumption. However, the South Africans gave themselves a boost immediately when Virat Kohli once again threw his bat at a wide ball outside off-stump - the first ball after the break - edging through to Quinton de Kock after making just 18 and giving Marco Jansen his third wicket in the match.
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It was the end of what has been a difficult year for the Indian captain with the bat, that has seen him score 536 runs at an average of just 28.10, a far cry from the dizzying standards he’s set for himself in the last decade.
Wickets fell at regular intervals thereafter with the highest partnership, 35 runs, coming for the seventh wicket between Pant and Ravi Ashwin. Pant’s run-a-ball 34 was typically entertaining, especially the mini-battle he had with his Delhi Capitals teammate, Kagiso Rabada.
There was one lovely cover drive and then a thumping pull for four, the sound the ball made off the bat, echoing around the sadly empty ground.
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Rabada claimed the final victory however, having Pant dismissed when a miscued pull, looped to midwicket where Lungi Ngidi took an easy catch.
Rabada finished with 4/42, a workmanlike performance from the spearhead of the South African attack. Jansen picked up 4/55, illustrating how well he’d learned from the mistakes he made in the first innings.
SCORECARD
India first innings 327 (KL Rahul 123, Mayank Agarwal 60, Lungi Ngidi 6/71, Kagiso Rabada 3/72) and 16/1 (
South Africa first innings 197 (Temba Bavuma 52, Quinton de Kock 34, Mohammed Shami 5/44, Jasprit Bumrah 2/16)
India second innings 174 (Rishabh Pant 34, KL Rahul 23, Kagiso Rabada 4/42, Marco Jansen 4/55 )
South Africa second innings 22/1 (Keegan Petersen 12*, Dean Elgar 9*, Mohammed Shami 1/14)
South Africa need 283 runs to win
IOL Sport