By: Tarish Bhatt
The Feroz Shah Kotla pitch wasn’t the one that we saw in Mohali and Nagpur, yes there was uneven bounce, but nothing like square turn to trouble the batsmen.
Still by the end of day’s play India found themselves in a position, where they wouldn’t have hoped to be on a first place, when skipper Virat Kohli won the toss in the morning.
When the stumps were drawn four overs early on the opening day of the Kotla Test, India were 231/7. The scoreline could have been worst had Ajinkya Rahane not anchored one end.
Ajinkya Rahane got back into his old touch, and slammed a fine half-century, his first in India, while also constructing crucial partnerships with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.
India have no one but to blame themselves, as Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha lost their wickets on balls that weren’t wicket-taking deliveries.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha were castled by pacer Kyle Abbott, while Rohit Sharma played a big shot a little too early off off-spinner Dean Piedt.
When Wriddhiman Saha was dismissed, India were reeling at 136/6, but Ajinkya Rahane was in no mood of surrendering, and got an able partner in form of Ravindra Jadeja.
Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane stitched a 56-runs partnership for the seventh wicket to bail India out when it was most required. Jadeja also looked in fine touch during his small, but crucial innings.
Earlier, Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli made a 70-run stand for the fourth wicket, and when these two were batting India were in a strong position.
For South Africa, Dean Piedt was the most successful bowler with four wickets, while Kyle Abbott took three.
For all latest updates on India vs South Africa follow Drcricket7.com
