Relentless India pummel Proteas

Two sessions of unrelenting toil for South Africa’s bowlers went unrewarded before rain washed out the final session as India reached a commanding total of 202 without loss on the first day of the first test at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

Rohit Sharma, opening in test cricket for the first time, reached his century from only 154 balls and was ominously placed on 115 from 174 balls with 12 fours and five sixes. Mayank Agarwal was on 84 from 183 deliveries with 11 fours and two sixes.

The two right-handers flourished against South Africa’s three spinners after surviving several moments of good bowling from seamers Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada in the first hour after Virat Kohli had won the toss and chosen to bat first.

Rohit played and missed half a dozen times against Philander’s probing off-stump line while Rabada found the shoulder of Agarwal’s bat only for the ball to loop past gully.

Senior spinner Keshav Maharaj bowled three tidy spells of left-arm spin (23-4-66-0) but offspinner Dane Piedt (7-1-43-1) was immediately attacked by both batsmen and struck for two straight sixes in his first two overs and never allowed to settle.

Left-armer Senuran Muthusamy, on debut, bowled five overs at a cost of 23 runs but, like the other spinners, found no turn on a grassless pitch which is perfect for batting but is expected to deteriorate rapidly as the match progresses.

NOT CLOSE TO A CHANCE

Rohit thrashed a short delivery from Philander just past Aiden Markram’s head in the gully shortly before tea and Agarwal pushed a Maharaj delivery past the same fielder's feet at silly point – that waw as close as the tourists came to creating a chance.

Bad light and the threat of rain caused tea to be taken five minutes early but the arrival of further bad weather was the best news South Africa’s players had all day.

"It was a tough day at the office but I thought Rohit and Agarwal batted really nicely," admitted debutant Muthusamy after the day’s play. "We obviously have to put in more hard yards tomorrow but hopefully we can come back stronger."

"We have plans for each batsman but credit to them, they batted really well and coped with everything we had. A few balls went in the air and there were a few edges and play and misses in the morning, but we’ll be up for it again tomorrow.

"The pitch is really dry and dusty already so we know it’s going to deteriorate as the match goes on. But there’s a reason it’s called ‘test’ cricket, it’s really tough but you’ve just got to hang in there and try to turn the tide," Muthusamy said.

As with Hashim Amla before him, Muthusamy’s heritage and current experience of India was of particular interest to local media: "I’m loving India and experiencing the culture. My forefathers are from the south, in Tamil Naidu, but I’m quite a few generations down the line… unfortunately, I don’t speak Tamil. I am very firmly born and bred South African!"

INDIA: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami

SOUTH AFRICA: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Theunis de Bruyn, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Vernon Philander, Senuran Muthusamy, Keshav Maharaj, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada