The first session went to India as they brought up 91/0 after Virat Kohli elected to bat on day one of the 1st Test between South Africa and India, writes Khalid Mohidin.
It was a decent first session from the visitors although India’s new opening pair handled the early new-ball swing from Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
They asked questions of Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal by getting the ball to misbehave in the air and off the pitch.
After 8 overs they had India under control, but they needed an early wicket. The lack of early wickets came back to bite them.
As India settled in the match, the seamers struggled to maintain bowling in the batsmen’s “don’t know zone”. The conditions and wicket look like it would have suited Lungi Ngidi perfectly.
Rohit settled in and brought up his half-century. On this slow wicket, the moment of the session goes to Virat Kohli who won the toss and elected to bat first.
His side built a good foundation to take India to 91/0 after 30 overs.
There is no margin for error on this surface in Visakhapatnam. The Proteas seamers need to implement more wickets-to-wickets bowling and search for a few wickets after lunch if they want to win the second session.
They need more moments like when Philander got the ball to nip back in to narrowly miss middle-stump.
India (1st innings): 91/0 – Rohit Sharma (52); Mayank Agarwal (39); Rabada (0/16), Senuran Muthusamy (0/10)
Teams:
South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Dean Elgar, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt.), 5 Temba Bavuma, 6 Quinton de Kock (wk), 7 Vernon Philander, 8 Senuran Muthusamy, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Dane Piedt
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt.), Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Hanuma Vihari, 7 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Mohammed Shami
