Cape Town: Cheteshwar Pujara battled hard as India batted sedately to reach 76 for 4 at lunch against South Africa on the second day of the first cricket Test
At the break, Pujara was unbeaten on 26 (91 balls, 5 fours) while Ravichandran Ashwin was batting on 12 (22 balls, 2 fours).
Only 48 runs were scored off 25 overs during the first session in which Rohit Sharma (11, 59 balls) was trapped leg before by Kagiso Rabada after he did all the hardwork during the first hour.
Starting from overnight score of 28 for 3, Pujara and Rohit were ready to show patience and frustrate the opposition bowlers.
They were content playing out deliveries and preserving wickets rather than scoring runs.
Vernon Philander (1/14 in 10 overs) didn’t concede single run in his first five overs, keeping a tight leash on Rohit.
He beat the batsman on a few occasions but it wasn’t enough to induce an edge.
Morkel (1/17 in 8 overs) came on as first change just before the drinks’ break and immediately he extracted more bounce from the surface.
India then crossed 50 in the 27th over. The visitors only added 17 runs in the first hour of play.
The big moment came when Rabada (1/15) came on to bowl.
He looked like taking a wicket from the very start as he troubled Rohit with pace, bounce and movement.
Finally, in the 29th over, he succeeded in doing so, trapping Rohit plumb in-front. The batsman used up a DRS review but the decision stayed in South Africa’s favour.
Pujara and Rohit had added 30 runs off 121 balls for the fourth wicket.
Ashwin and Pujara batted out the remainder of the session. The former looked for scoring opportunities more than his partner and quickly moved into double figures to give some respectability to the Indian total going into the lunch break. (PTI)
