Currently, the Indian team is locking horns with South Africa in the opening Test of the three-match series at the Supersport Park in Centurion. After winning the toss, surprisingly, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bat first despite the pitch was looking damp.
The Indian openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal didn’t disappoint as well, as they made a brilliant opening partnership of 117 runs with both of them scoring individual half-centuries. However, they lost two wickets in quick sessions as Lungi Ngidi dismissed Mayank and Cheteshwar Pujara on back-to-back deliveries.
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After the two wickets, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul started building a partnership, however, the Indian skipper was seen playing some glorious drives during the partnership. In the 61st over, Kohli played an exquisite cover drive off Kagiso Rabada. Here is the video of the same:
https://twitter.com/enoughraa/status/1475094766161469444?t=WK38LoPIFl5dJZnlWxVpxQ&s=19
Vice-captain KL Rahul opened the innings along with Mayank Agarwal in the absence of Rohit Sharma and both the openers looked solid and they completed the fifty partnership off 105 balls. At lunch, India was at 83/0 in 28.0 overs with KL Rahul at 29 and Mayank Agarwal at 46 runs.
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After the lunch, Mayank scored his fifty and also made a century partnership with Rahul and they became the 3rd Indian opening pair to register a century partnership against South Africa in South Africa in tests after Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik in 2007 and Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag in 2010.
South Africa Playing XI: Dean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk), Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
India Playing XI: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj