India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli and Co need to get rid of AB de Villiers early, maintain fielding discipline on Day 2

The three-Test series between South Africa and India might already be decided in the hosts’ favour, but that doesn’t entirely mean that the final Test at Johannesburg is devoid of context. On Wednesday, the two teams produced an interesting day’s play to show that neither side had let their guard down despite the match technically being a dead rubber. India won the toss for a change, with captain Virat Kohli finally bringing in Ajinkya Rahane into the team while replacing off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin with Bhuvneshwar Kumar — the brightest performer with the ball from the Indian camp at Newlands. The South Africans too opted for five seamers for a green Wanderers track, bringing in Andile Phehlukwayo in place of Keshav Maharaj. [caption id=“attachment_4318391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Indians celebrate the early dismissal of South African opener Aiden Markram. AP[/caption] The difficulty of batting on a pitch that seemed to have an excess of pace, bounce and carry in it was apparent as the Indians, barring Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, once again struggled to get going against the fearsome South African pace attack. Kohli and Pujara hit contrasting half-centuries to steady the ship after the openers departed early. The others failed and then Bhuvneshwar Kumar contributed valuable runs down the order to help India post 187 which, at one point, seemed a distant dream. The Indian total though, looked a lot more competitive after the South African top-order too struggled to adjust to the conditions themselves, with Bhuvneshwar removing Aiden Markram early to make the match a lot more interesting. It is however, not the first time that the hosts have found themselves under pressure after losing a couple of early wickets. AB de Villiers has, on more than one occasion in this series, pulled his side out of trouble with brilliant counter-attacking knocks, ones that took the momentum of the early wickets away from the Indians and helped lay the foundation for competitive totals. Visiting skipper Kohli will know all too well that ‘Mr 360’ needs to be tamed on the second day if they are to maintain balance in the final Test. Hitting the right lengths will be the key and it’s not just the all-seam Indian attack that has to maintain the discipline but the fielders too. They need to be sharp especially at their catching. A huge shot in the arm is that Rahane is back in the slip cordon. Should the Indians get these two things right, a score of 187 might very well turn out to be an imposing one for the Proteas.