11th of January 2022 – The ongoing test match between India and South Africa saw a rejuvenated Virat Kohli after he missed the second test due to an upper back spasm.
The skipper scored a well-made 79 runs, battling it out for 201 hard deliveries.
Unlike the previous matches, where he got to a start, and ended up chasing an outside the off-stump delivery, Kohli looked solid in his stay at the crease.
When Kohli was batting on 40, Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian legend mentioned that these runs were in fact the hardest runs that he had scored in the last 5-6 years.
Earlier in the day, Virat called the toss right, and elected to bat first on a pretty decent track.
However, the Indian openers disappointed with the bat, with Rahul edging one to the keeper on 12, and Mayank edging one to Markram in the slips on 15.
With both the Indian openers back in the hut by 12 overs, Pujara and Kohli built a solid 62 runs partnership for the third wicket, before Marco Jansen produced a beauty to remove Pujara, 7 runs short of his half-century. Rahane opened his account with a glorious boundary, but soon ended up edging one to the keeper.
Pant was watchful in his innings, but soon succumbed to his desires, chasing an outgoing delivery. The rest of the Indian batters, could not make any difference as India ended up with a below-par first innings score of 223.
Just as it looked like Kohli would end a two-year century drought, he started losing partners at the other end and ended up edging one from Rabada, who looked in great touch today.
The South African bowling spearhead ended up with 4 wickets giving away only 73 runs in the 22 overs he bowled. Much credit would however go to Jansen, who looked like getting a wicket every time he came out to bowl.
South Africa ended the day with 17/1, with Bumrah fishing out the prized wicket of Dean Elgar.
This series is full of scenarios of what could have been, and the first day of this match was no less. We need to wait to know what the match holds for us on the second day.
Stay tuned with Zollical for the latest updates.
