Kagiso Rabada ignites the Proteas with a ball, but KL Rahul holds firm for India.
Kagiso Rabada took five wickets for the Proteas, but KL Rahul’s fighting innings kept Indian hopes alive on the first day of the first Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday.
India were 208/8 when bad light and rain forced an early end.
Rabada finished with 5/44, his 14th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
Rahul, who scored a century to help India win at the same venue two years ago, was unbeaten on 70.
Rabada was outstanding for the hosts after they sent India in to bat on a pitch that had been covered due to rain for 40 hours prior to the morning of the match.
However, South Africa did not fully capitalize on favorable conditions. Nandre Burger, a left-arm fast bowler, impressed in his first Test appearance, taking two early wickets, but neither Marco Jansen nor Gerald Coetzee could find consistent control.
Rabada and Burger reduced India to 24 for three, and India could have been in even more trouble had South Africa not missed chances from Virat Kohli (38) and Shreya Iyer (31) in the early stages of a partnership that yielded 68 runs for the fourth wicket.
Iyer was on four when Jansen dropped him at backward point off Rabada, and Kohli was on four when Tony de Zorzi dropped him at midwicket off Burger in the next over.
Rabada bowled a three-wicket spell immediately after lunch, dismissing both set batsmen as well as Ravichandran Ashwin.
Iyer was caught behind off a superb delivery that swung away late before Ashwin was caught at third slip off a steeply-lifting delivery.
Rahul and Shardul Thakur (24) put on 43 for the seventh wicket, but Thakur required treatment on the field twice, once after being hit on the helmet by Coetzee and again when Rabada returned for his third spell.
After being treated for his second injury, Thakur played a loose drive that was caught at mid-off by stand-in captain Dean Elgar.
Rahul batted calmly and contributed 41 of the 44 runs scored for the loss of Jasprit Bumrah’s wicket following Thakur’s dismissal. Rahul had faced 105 balls and hit ten fours and two sixes when play was called off.
Elgar, who has announced his retirement from international cricket after the second Test in Cape Town next week, took over after Temba Bavuma left the field before lunch with a strained left hamstring
According to a South African dressing room bulletin, “daily medical evaluations to determine his participation in the match” would take place.
Bavuma’s decision to bowl first was unsurprising given the weather conditions in the days leading up to the match – but it is a ground where batting has traditionally become more difficult later in matches due to uneven bounce.
