Cape Town: If beating the edge of the bat could get India points, Virat Kohli and boys would have scored 100 out of 100 on the report card at the end of the opening day’s play in the first Test of the series between India and South Africa at the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town on Friday.
But it is picking the wickets that count on the scoreboard and that is where the visitors let the game drift and South Africa strengthened their hold on the game after reeling at 12/3 in the opening hour of the match.
The result at the end of day's play was South Africa sitting pretty on 286 in the first innings and India reeling at 28/3 after 11 overs with Cheteshwar Pujara (5) and Rohit Sharma (0) at the crease. The visitors still trail South Africa by 258 runs with seven wickets in hand and if the groundsmen are to be believed, the pace and carry will only get better on the second day. This clearly means that India have their task cut-out come Saturday.
Murali Vijay's (1) dismissal showed how the senior campaigner committed the cardinal sin of flaying outside the off-stump. With the ball from Vernon Philander pitching just outside off, Vijay went for the flashy drive and the ball went straight to Dean Elgar at gully.
Dale Steyn then got Shikhar Dhawan for just 16 as the latter tried to pull one off the tearaway pacer and only managed to top-edge it for Steyn to wait at the bowling crease and complete the easiest of catches he has ever got in international cricket.
Virat Kohli showed he has still not learnt from his horror run in England as he edged Morne Morkel to Quinton de Kock to go back for 5. That very line outside the off-stump that the Englishmen kept feeding Kohli has done the trick again in Newlands.
The old adage goes that morning shows the day. But unfortunately for the Indians that was definitely not the case. With South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis winning the toss and deciding to bat, it looked like the Indians were in for a toil. But Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked three wickets in quick succession to have the South Africans reeling at 12/3 after just 4.5 overs with Dean Elgar (0), Aiden Markram (5) and former skipper Hashim Amla (3) falling prey to the seam movement of Bhuvneshwar.
While Elgar and Amla edged to Wriddhiman Saha behind the wicket, Markram failed to get the bat down in time to stop one swinging in after pitching and thudding into is pads. The umpire had no hesitation in lifting the finger and sending the opener back. The packed crowd at Newlands wore a sombre look as Kohli kept pumping his fist.
But what the Indians seemed to have forgotten was the presence of two of the hosts’ best performers with bat in recent years – Faf and AB de Villiers. The two combined beautifully even as the Indian bowlers kept missing the edge of the batsmen. They showed excellent commitment and discipline in their approach in the first hour – a must in the longest format of the game. Even though they hardly middled anything with Bhuvneshwar and Mohammed Shami bowling a tight line, they refused to surrender.
The two stitched a 95-run partnership as the hosts went into lunch with the score on a dicey 107/3. The game could still go anywhere and the Indians had sniffed blood. Even though ABD had scored his 41st Test fifty, he still looked very cautious in his approach with the ball moving around. Faf was unbeaten on 37 at the break.
