KL Rahul dictated the proceedings on Day 1 as India firmly in the driver’s seat

India firmly established themselves in the driver’s seat as they rode on a blistering ton from KL Rahul to render the fast-bowling trident of South Africa toothless. Despite an alarming infringement from Lungi Ngidi, Rahul navigated the pitch comfortably with decent support from Mayank Agarwal and Ajinkya Rahane.

India were off to a flyer, thanks to Mayank Agarwal as he started his innings on a comfortable note. Trading the nasty pace on the super-fast tracks of South Africa, Agarwal started attacking the bowlers with Rahul playing the second fiddle initially.

India played out the opening session without any casualties, as the duo weathered the new ball comfortably. It was the second session that allowed South Africa to claw back after Lungi Ngidi managed to get the better of an aggressive Agarwal as the latter failed to judge the pace of the delivery.

Much to the surprise of the Indian fans, Cheteshwar Pujara found himself unspooled against the Ngidi on the very first ball that he played, departing for a rare golden duck.

The Indian skipper provided the much-needed breath of reliability as KL Rahul took over the matters into his own hand.

He took his time, weathered the menacing deliveries with an air of confidence and played a few decent strokes that involved no risks whatsoever, ushering India to a comfortable position before Ngidi dealt India the third blow of the day. The Indian captain was cruising until then as he stitched a fine 35 that starred a couple of his signature drives.

However, his innings was brought to a grinding halt as Ngidi once again came up trumps with a super-fast delivery that compelled Kohli’s hand and the ball flew straight into the arms of Wiann Mulder.

Given India’s recent tryst with middle-order collapses in the longest format of the game, a scary deja-vu was slowly kicking in. However, Ajinkya Rahane had other plans as he seemed more confident than ever in striking the ball a lot more aggressively than he usually does, and ended up in providing decent support to KL Rahul.

India saw off the day without any further blows while the two batters in the center propelled the visitors to a decent 272 for the loss of 3 with Rahul staying unbeaten at 122 while Rahane finishing the day on 40.

India will have a few early tasks to perform on Day 2 as the ball is relatively new and will move around for a while to trouble the batters. However, given the extraordinary reign of dominion from Rahul and a decent knock from Rahane, hopes in the Indian camp will be pretty high.