Ishant Sharma’s Selection Over Bhuvneshwar Kumar For 2nd Test Leaves Millennials Baffled

With another lively pitch expected, the scenario looks to get all the more tougher with rain forecast as well, but Team India have the ammunition and are a much balanced side to the teams Cullinan faced in the 1990s.

A day filled with oohs and aahs in both the camps came to an end with South Africa finishing on 269 for the loss of 6 wickets.

Pandya, replacing Shami, found Rabada’s edge in his first over but the ball didn’t carry to first slip; an argument could be made that the wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel should have dived across and gone for the catch. It was clearly a lucky wicket for the visitors as Elgar jumped down the track and hit the ball straight at Vijay who somehow managed to hold onto that one after it hit his body.

“India were in the game for 90 per cent of the match”.

South Africa have won the toss and asked India to bowl first in the penultimate second Test of the three-match series at the SuperSport Park here on Saturday. First, a brilliant piece of fielding by Hardik Pandya saw the back of Amla. In the next over, Vernon Philander set off on a suicidal run and India obliged as South Africa lost three wickets in the space of three overs and missed a big opportunity to land early blows. Ishant, chosen for his ability to extract more bounce than Bhuvneshwar, was the other Indian bowler among the wickets by virtue of his removing the unsafe de Villiers for 20.

Pandya and Ashwin were batting at No. 7 and 8 respectively, which suggests India have enough depth in their batting order – if their top-order players can get themselves through the new ball.

Watch day two of the second Test between South Africa and India, live on Sky Sports Cricket (channel 404) and Sky Sports Main Event (channel 401) from 7.55am on Sunday. This is a pitch that is very subcontinent and Ravichandran Ashwin was turning the ball from the very first over.

“Generally there is good bounce here but it lacked that extra pace that the usual SuperSport Park looks like”. “You might get out but it’s important to keep coming at the bowler and making them feel, ‘if you make an error I am going to score”. “It is a part of the game and we just got to be nice and positive as a side and fight for every run tomorrow morning”, he said.

“It is a wicket where the contest is always happening but we would have liked it a bit quicker”. Elgar departed for 31 runs off 83 balls hitting four boundaries in the process. “I am just taking the confidence forward, and I am trying to get better as the day goes and by the end of this series I will be a far better bowler than what I started”.

Shami looked off-colour in his first spell once again, just like in Cape Town, conceding 23 runs off his four overs. AB de Villiers was out for 20, played on to seamer Ishant Sharma.

Amla and De Villiers had scored 51 for the third wicket; South Africa’s third successive half-century partnership of the day.