Despite Kagiso Rabada’s early wicket, the Proteas failed to take full advantage of the favourable conditions against India in the first session on day one of the 2nd Test in Pune, writes Khalid Mohidin.
The Proteas lost a toss that they wouldn’t have been too upset about losing.
Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, showed that there is some movement in the pitch.
It took just 9 overs for the Proteas to get the first breakthrough and what a beauty it was from Rabada. He pitched the delivery hard on middle and off stump and it straightened which forced Rohit Sharma to play at it. He found the outside edge and Quinton de Kock took the catch. This was the best moment of the session. It was also the fourth time that KG dismissed the Indian batsman.
But as predicted, the pitch started to get easier to bat on and the India batsmen went after Anrich Nortje, taking advantage of his extra pace.
Mayank Agarwal (34*) played some tasty shots to combat the pressure applied by the early wicket. The recovery from India was admirable.
The Proteas should feel that they had to take more advantage of the favourable conditions.
India ended the first session with 77 on the board.
