KL Rahul’s brilliant unbeaten 70 gave India a massive lift on a challenging opening day of IND vs SA 1st Test in Centurion on Tuesday.
On a gloomy Centurion day, South African bowlers, led by Kagiso Rabada took the honours and reduced India to 208/8 before rain forced early curtain on Day 1.
After being put to bat, Team India started in positive fashion with both openers- Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma – getting a start. However, Rohit’s ‘most productive’ pull shot led to his downfall as he departed on 5.
Yashasvi played few delightful shots before he fell pray to debutant Nandre Burger on 17.
Gill faced a similar fate as he was undone by Burger on 2.
Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, despite few early jitters, managed to push India to 91/3.
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While both teams shared the first session, the second session saw India being steamrolled by Rabada.
While Shreyas Iyer was undone by a low inswinger, Virat Kohli got bamboozled by an almost unplayable outswinger.
From 91/3, India were reduced to 121/6 and were staring a collapse when KL Rahul took the charge. The wicketkeeper-batter stitched a crucial partnerships with Shardul Thakur (24) and Jasprit Bumrah (1) to push India’s total past 200. Bumrah’s dismissal late in the evening forced KL to shift gears but rain halted the latter’s charge as India ended the day on 208/8.
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