(Cricket news) The big news at the toss was that it was KL Rahul who walked out in a blazer instead of Virat Kohli who was ruled out due to an upper back spasm. India elected to bat after winning the toss as Hanuma Vihari replaced Kohli. South Africa replaced the now retired Quinton de Kock with Kyle Verreynne while Duanne Olivier came in place of Wiaan Mulder. 

India had a decent start as the Karnataka boys Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul looked comfortable at the crease. The first chance for South Africa came in the 11th over when Kagiso Rabada's in-swinger caught Agarwal's inside edge onto the pad and fell just short of forward square leg. Three overs later, Marco Jansen got rid of Agarwal with an outswinger. Cheteshwar Pujara came in to bat and soon edged a short ball that once again was wide of leg gully. Olivier got rid of Pujara on 3 towards the end of the session. Ajinkya Rahane walked out to bat at no. 4 in the absence of Virat Kohli and got a golden duck. He chased Olivier's ball outside the line and edged it to 3rd slip. 

Hanuma Vihari came into bat and should have been dismissed on 9 by Ngidi but the catch was dropped by Temba Bavuma. He eventually got out on 20 as Rabada's bouncy ball caught his inside edge straight to short leg. All this while KL Rahul remained resilient and watchful. He reached his fifty in 128 balls but threw his wicket away straight after that as he tried to pull Jansen's ball but found Rabada fine leg who took a good catch. Ravichandran Ashwin straight away took the aggressive approach scoring at a run a ball. India lost Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur in quick succession after tea and India were in a spot of bother on 157-6. Rabada got rid of Shami before he could do much damage. Ashwin played really well as he played all kinds of strokes but was dismissed on 46 by Jansen. Jasprit Bumrah had his fun for a while as he scored 14 of 11 balls hitting 2 fours and a big six. Rabada dismissed Mohammed Siraj to end India's innings at 202.

Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar played a couple boundaries to get South Africa to 14 for no loss in under 4 overs. Mohammed Shami got the first breakthrough as his in-swinger trapped Markram plum in front. India couldn't manage to get another wicket as Elgar and Keegan Peterson held on. The pair was incredibly lucky on multiple occasions. Peterson was dropped on 12 by Pant off Bumrah. Elgar had more than his fair share of luck as he played and missed way too many balls mostly from Siraj who towards the end of the day walked off the field as he looked to have pulled his hamstring. The day ended with South Africa on 35-1, just 167 runs behind India. The Proteas are now in the driver's seat and would be confident that they could level the series.

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