Ind vs SA, Day 1: Classy Kohli takes India to 255-5

At stumps on the first day of the first Test between India and South Africa, Ajinkya Rahane (43) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (17) have taken India to 255-5. A brilliant century by Virat Kohli (119, 181 balls, 18 fours) gave the Indian batting line-up some spine even as they found ways of gifting their wickets away. TOSS India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss at the Wanderers and immediately elected to bat first. It was a decision that surprised many given that the SA bowling attack includes Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. But another way to look at it is to say that Dhoni is showing great confidence in his batsmen. He is backing his openers to come good and take advantage of a pitch that may be slow to begin with. Former SA allrounder and skipper Shaun Pollock felt that initially the pitch won’t be very quick and that might have given Dhoni the idea of batting first. But all in all, it’s a tall task for India. India have gone in with three fast bowlers (Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami) and one spinner (R Ashwin), while SA have Imran Tahir as the lone spinner. South Africa, on the other hand, will want to make the most of the first session. Philander and Morkel will be at the batsmen all the time and Steyn will count on pace and aggression to do the trick for him. When asked about his tactics, Steyn simply said: “Hit them with pace and bounce. The Indians don’t like that. I will be targeting everyone.” The last 12 Tests at the Wanderers have produced results with South Africa winning six and losing six. So this should be fun too. India XI: M Vijay, S Dhawan, CA Pujara, V Kohli, RG Sharma, AM Rahane, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, I Sharma, Z Khan, Mohammed Shami. South Africa XI: GC Smith, AN Petersen, HM Amla, JH Kallis, AB de Villiers, F du Plessis, JP Duminy, VD Philander, DW Steyn, M Morkel, Imran Tahir. First session (70 runs, 2 wickets, 27 overs) It’s silly batting when you know what the bowler is going to do and you still fall prey to it. You know what Steyn is going to do, you know how he is going to do it and yet you oblige him. Since before the start of the first Test, no even before the start of the series – Steyn has been speaking about his preffered mode of attack: the short ball. For four Steyn overs, the Indian openers resisted the temptation to hook and then Dhawan decided that he had had enough. [caption id=“attachment_1295079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kohli was simply superb. AP[/caption] The third ball of the ninth over was short and Dhawan didn’t know much about it. He went for the pull, somehow got bat on ball. It went away for four between the fielders at fine leg and square leg. The fielders were always present there. The batsmen knew they were there too. The fourth ball was short again. Once again, Dhawan decides he wants to stand tall and play it. It goes off handle towards gully. For the fifth ball, Smith moved gully to short-leg. Clear indication that Dhawan would have to duck or weave out of the way now. The ball wasn’t on target though. It went down to the leg-side but Dhawan still went for the shot – didn’t get bat on ball though. Then came the last ball and Dhawan came a cropper. It was short once again, once again Dhawan went for the pull and once again he was not in control. It was poor cricket, all over again. He was caught at fine leg. Steyn was already in his fifth over and he was taken out of the attack after his sixth. Dhawan (13 off 27 balls) just didn’t have the patience to wait him out. (India 1-17) Till that point, India had done a pretty good job of blunting the new ball. A few runs later, with the total on 24, Murali Vijay was dropped by Hashim Amla at short-leg. The ball came off the shoulder of the bat and looped just wide of Amla. He moved quickly enough and even got his left hand to the ball but it just didn’t stick. At drinks in the first session, India were 24-1 after 14 overs. But then immediately after the break, Morkel and SA’s short ball treatment got another reward. This time though, he pitched it up and Vijay (6 off 42), after being held on the back foot for so long, played at it. The edge ended up in the keeper’s hand. (India 2-24) Morkel gave one run in his first over. Then he reeled off four maidens straight maidens and got a wicket too. It kept the pressure on and forced the mistake. The fall of Vijay’s wicket brought two of India’s finest young batsmen – Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara together in the middle. If India were going to get anywhere in this Test, then this pair had to stick. There were a few alarms – edges fell short and there was some indecision with the stroke-play but on the whole Kohli and Pujara played intelligently. At lunch, India were 70-2 after 27 overs. The partnership between Kohli and Pujara was worth 46 off 72 balls. The session was pretty even and India will be pretty happy to have lost just two wickets. Tea (28 overs, 94 runs, 2 wickets) A session that India dominated and but for two moments of madness, South Africa would have been under some pressure here. Virat Kohli was the standout performer – taking on the SA bowlers, pulling, cutting off the back foot and driving well. He played cricket on his own terms as he had promised before the tour. Whether you like Kohli or not, you have to agree that he has guts – he plays without fear and that kind of pushed SA on the backfoot. But SA didn’t bowl well at him either. A look at his wagon wheel with his score on 55 revealed that not a single run was scored straight down the ground, showing that the SA bowlers simply didn’t pitch the ball up. They kept it too short and he eventually settled into a rhythm. At the other end, Pujara was steady. He wasn’t scoring as quickly as Kohli but he wasn’t looking troubled either. He was taking things at his own pace too. But then out of the blue came the first moment of madness. Tahir was the bowler and Kohli had pretty much dominated the bowler (even at the end of the session he had 25 runs off 21 balls bowled by the leg-spinner) but then he called for a quick single. Pujara set off off immediately and was already half-way down the track when Kohli decided that there wasn’t a run in there. He turned back and Pujara (25) was left stranded. Tahir fielded the ball off his own bowling and threw it to Amla, who completed the job. India (3-113) The partnership between the two was 89 runs off 27.3 overs and it had completely nullified the SA attack. But the wicket raised the spirits of the home team and almost immediately you heard the voices pick up. Rohit Sharma with an average of 288.00 after three Tests was in next but he didn’t last too long. He worked his way to 14 off 42 balls before he went for an extravagant drive and edged the ball to the keeper. It gave Philander his first wicket and immediately evened the odds. Kohli is the key now. If he falls soon after tea, then India might have just given away a big advantage. They have done all the hard work today but have been let down by lapses of judgement and concentration. Post-tea session (35 overs, 91 runs, 1 wicket) Kohli cruised to his century, then had a few words with Kallis. The next thing you know, he lost his concentration and hit the ball to short cover. He hung his head in anguish but he really had done Indian proud. Going into the first day, everyone was expecting India to just roll over. But Kohli showed that India can compete and that is big for the entire squad. His century – his second outside the subcontinent – came off 140 balls and included 16 fours. It was also his sixth century of 2013. He was calm for most part and the manner in which he adapted to the situation deserves a lot of praise. He came in with India are 24-2 and from that point on played a major role in three partnerships: 89 runs with Pujara, 38 with Rohit and 36 with Rahane. Rahane also batted beautifully. He sort of passed under the radar because everyone was focused on Kohli but he was just as solid. It helped that Philander and Tahir bowled loose deliveries to get his off the mark. One of the areas that Smith would like to look at would be the manner in which India went after the spinners. SA were behind the over rate and that forced them to bring in the spinners but Kohli and Co punished them. In 13 overs, Tahir and Duminy were hammered for 77 runs at almost six runs an over. In sharp contrast, none of the pacemen conceded more than 2.64 runs per over. In the final counting, these overs by the spinners could really hurt SA. But SA managed to keep things disciplined mostly and will go in believing that a few quick wickets on day 2 could see them come back into the match pretty quickly. But at the end of the day, India will be pretty pleased by what they have managed to achieve. They have some runs on the board and if they can get to 350 – South Africa will need to do some good batting of their own to stay in the match.