de Villiers, Elgar resurrect Proteas innings, reaches 90/2 at stumps

Centurian: Riding on the mixed efforts of AB de Villiers (50) and Dean Elgar (36), South Africa reached 90/2 in its second innings after bowling out India for 307 in their first innings on the third day of the second cricket Test at the SuperSport Park here on Monday.

South Africa have a lead of 118 runs with AB de Villiers (50) and Dean Elgar (36) at the crease as bad light and rain disrupted majority of the post-tea session.

After bowling India out for 307, the hosts began their second innings on a disastrous fashion. With only three runs on the board, pacer Jasprit Bumrah pegged back South Africa with two quick wickets of in-form Aiden Markram (1) and experienced batsman Hashim Amla (1). Both Proteas batsmen were adjudged leg before wicket.

Afterwards, Elgar and de Villiers resurrected the innings. Elgar survived some nervy moments with outside edges and inside edges not going to the Indian fielders.

Rain interrupted play for an hour. And when the match resumed, luck continued to favour Elgar. At his personal score of 29, the left-hander edged a delivery from Bumrah. But wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel let it go, thinking it was first slip fielder Cheteshwar Pujara's catch.

At the other end, de Villiers played a dominating knock. A batsman of high pedigree, de Villiers struck six fours as he had answers to whatever Ishant, Bumrah and Ashwin bowled at him.

Later, due to bad light, umpires decided to suspend the match for a while before taking the final call of ending the day's play.

Also read: Stokes in deep water, charged with affray after nightclub incident

Earlier, it all rested on Virat Kohli yet again. He stood firm and ensured India’s stay in the contest.

It was century number 21 for the Indian skipper came at a time when India was losing wickets from the other end. Virat’s 153-run knock came in 217 balls with 15 boundaries.

With his 153-run knock, he became the second Indian captain after Sachin Tendulkar to score a century in South Africa. Tendulkar's 169 in Cape Town in 1997 was the first.

Kohli, while trying to pace up the innings at the end, was then caught by AB de Villiers off Morkel.

Kohli forged a crucial 71-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Ravichandran Ashwin (38) to stabilise the innings.

The partnership helped India to recover from the early loss of overnight batsman Hardik Pandya (15), who ran himself out. The Baroda all-rounder wanted to take a single off pacer Kagiso Rabada with a tap to mid-on but Kohli refused and the former ran back only to see a direct throw from Vernon Philander caught him short of the crease.

Before the run out, Kohli completed his century with a tap to mid-wicket for a single off Lungisani Ngidi to get to his three-figure mark before running back after an overthrow.

Kohli continued from where he left on Sunday’s unbeaten knock of 85. He stamped his authority over the Proteas bowlers and kept on punishing the bad balls.

Ashwin played a stroke-filled knock of 38 in 54 balls. He supported Kohli perfectly at the other end to put pressure on the opponents.

Just when things seemed good in the middle for the hosts, Ashwin was dismissed through a poor poor shot selection off Philander, edging it to Faf du Plesis at the second slip.

Pacer Mohammad Shami then came in the middle and but failed to rise to the pressure as he failed to fend off a rising delivery from Morne Morkel, managing only an edge to Hashim Amla at first slip. Ishant Sharma also departed at 3.

Jasprit Bumrah remained unbeaten at 0.

For South Africa. Morkel claimed four wickets while Keshav Maharaj, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Lungisani Ngidi took one each.