Finance
In the second Test at Newlands Cricket Ground on Wednesday, India took the lead in the first innings despite losing their top order to Mohammed Siraj’s devastating performance of 6–15 against South Africa.
India have taken a 56-run lead after tea, scoring 111/4 in 24 overs after knocking South Africa out for just 55. India seized the lead in less than ten overs in this session of two halves, but South Africa’s bright spot came from left-arm bowler Nandre Burger, who claimed three wickets.
After conceding 13 runs in his opening over, the bowler Lungi Ngidi was out of form and Rohit Sharma set the tone by hitting three boundaries with him. However, Yashasvi Jaiswal stumbled and didn’t score, slicing into his stumps off Kagiso Rabada for a seven-ball duck.
While Ngidi and Burger were regularly hitting half-volleies, Rohit and Shubman Gill displayed some beautiful strokeplay on each side of the wicket. After surviving two leg-before-winning appeals on nip-backers from Rabada and Marco Jansen, Rohit was squared up by Burger with an additional bounce.
The Indian captain attempted to block him, but the outside edge bounced off the bat’s shoulder and was caught by gully, causing Rohit to leave the game after just 39 balls out of 50. When Virat Kohli’s ball sailed between the slips and the gully for four, it was an enormous stroke of luck.
Gill used his renowned short-arm jab to pick boundaries as Kohli punched and drove on half-volleies. However, Burger retaliated when Gill moved away from him and made a catch to the gully who was moving to his left.
After finding his rhythm, Burger squared up Shreyas Iyer and nicked Kyle Verreynne, the wicketkeeper, to take another wicket. With the visitors hoping to add more runs to their lead in the last session of day one, the session ended with Kohli undefeated on 20 and KL Rahul yet to score after facing seven balls.
Brief Scores: South Africa 55 in 23.2 overs (Kyle Verreynne 15; Mohammed Siraj 6-15) trail India 111/4 in 24 overs (Rohit Sharma 39, Shubman Gill 36; Nandre Burger 3-42, Kagiso Rabada 1-10) by 56 runs
Source:IANS
