The South African team has made a stupendous comeback in the first Test of the three0match series against India owing to the centuries from Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock. After a nervous start, the visitors had reduced the lead to just 71 runs. Even the lower order added some valuable runs. In India’s second innings, the onus was on Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal to build on the decent lead.
However, Mayank, who got a double century in the first innings, got out after scoring just 7 runs as he was dismissed by a left-arm spinner, Keshav Maharaj. The onus was then on Sharma to carry forward India’s second innings. The latter had Cheteshwar Pujara as his partner. However, Pujara wasn’t looking comfortable at the crease as he was batting quite slow at per the expectations and took his time initially to get the measure of the conditions and the opposition bowling.
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On the other hand, Rohit was scoring at a brisk rate and able to score a boundary quite often combined with consistent singles and doubles. In the meantime, Rohit hurled abuses at Pujara, calling him a bh****od. In an over from Dane Piedt, Sharma tapped the ball on the off-side and set off for a single. But Pujara wasn’t interested and backed off. It left Rohit frustrated and he instinctively abused.
Here is the video of the incident:
Rohit abused Pujara? pic.twitter.com/YXIeITVPVi
— Cricket Videos (@CricketVideos15) October 5, 2019
Rohit made a huge dent in the psyche of the South African bowlers in the first innings as he registered a score of 176. He was also involved in a 317-run opening stand with Mayank that laid the platform for the massive score of 502. He opened the batting for the first time in Test cricket and he made the opportunity count with his impressive skill.
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Sharma carried forward his form in the second innings as well. Rohit got to his half-century off 72 balls. By the time this was written, he is batting at a strike rate of 62+ as he reached 59 in 94 deliveries, hitting three fours and four sixes.
