South Africa have won the toss on Boxing Day and asked India to bat first on a green pitch. India lost their top order including Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill very early. Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer have put on a decent partnership but could not kick on to make a huge score. KL Rahul has come to rescue India and played an immaculate innings.
He scored a fighting century and India got bowled out for 245 in the first innings. Interestingly, KL Rahul reached to his Test century with a huge six. Immediately, India got bowled out. Kagiso Rabada has been instrumental in India being restricted to 245 in the first innings. He took 5/59 in 20 overs. Youngster Nandre Burger also took important wickets and ended up with 3/50 returns. Gerald Coetzee(1/74) and Marco Jansen(1/52) are the four bowlers South Africa has employed.
In batting, South Africa has gone for a completely different looking batting order with many new faces. Aiden Markram opened with Dean Elgar. Elgar has scored a huge century to kick start his farewell series in a great fashion. He scored his 14th century in two sessions on Day 2 and by the end of the play, he remained not out on 140.
In rest of the batting order, debutant David Bedingham made a lasting impression with a fifty. He scored 56 runs off 87 balls and put on a partnership of 131-runs for 4th wicket before getting out to Mohammed Siraj. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Tony de Zorzi(28) and Keegan Petersen(2) quickly, to bring India back into the game. But Bedingham had other plans.
South Africa due to the big partnership has secured 11 runs lead against India and are on handsomely on 256/5 by the end of the Day 2. Prasidh Krishna got his maiden Test wicket by dismissing Kyle Verreynne(4) late in the day. India now needs their bowlers to come out all guns blazing on Day 3 to restrict SA lead and need their batters to play better part of Day 3 and if possible Day 4 to give SA a huge target to chase.
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