India opener KL Rahul celebrated the first Test match of the three-match series against South Africa in Centurion with an amazing century and remained unbeaten at the end of the day’s play.
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first despite a tinge of green on the surface. India went in with five bowlers with Mohammed Siraj getting the nod over Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. Shardul Thakur also got into the XI to bolster the batting a bit.
South Africa gave Marco Jansen his Test debut.
Mayank Agarwal (60) and KL Rahul added 117 runs for the opening wicket, becoming the third Indian openers to add more than 100 runs in a Test in South Africa. After Agarwal fell to Lungi, Ngidi, Cheteshwar Pujara followed the next ball for a golden duck.
This could be a blessing in disguise for Virat and Rohit- Shastri on the captaincy issue
Indian captain Virat Kohli looked good for his 35, but once again fell chasing the wide ball outside off stump, with Ngidi scalping the prized wicket. He picked all the three Indian wickets to fall on day one.
Meanwhile, KL Rahul completed his 7th Test hundred and first in South Africa in 218 balls and added 73* runs with Ajinkya Rahane for the fourth wicket. The former India Test vice-captain looked in good touch under pressure to score runs as he ended the day on 40* with 8 fours, as India finished on 272/3 at stumps.
The cricket fraternity was all praises for KL Rahul’s century and India’s performance on day one and wished on Twitter.
Here are some tweets:
