After winning the toss, the visitors decided to bat first with the return of their regular skipper Virat Kohli, who had missed out on the second match due to a back spasm.
In the challenging conditions, the expectations were again high from the openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal to give India a good start. However, in the 12th over of Day 1, vice-captain Rahul became the first victim after he edged a Duanne Olivier‘s delivery behind the stumps for 12 runs. In the very next over, Kagiso Rabada joined the party to remove Rahul’s partner-in-crime Mayank for 15.
After the dismissal of both openers, Team India’s senior pair of Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara joined hands to get the side out of hot waters. Both Pujara and Kohli faced the challenge of some high-quality bowling by the Proteas and kept their respective stands alive.
The duo went on to form a splendid partnership of 62 runs for the third wicket and were looking set to go further, but Marco Jansen had some other plans. In the 38th over of India’s first innings, Jansen bowled a peach of a delivery to get rid of Pujara to reduce India at 95/3.
Jansen came round the wicket and bowled an angled delivery that straightened slightly. Pujara got stuck on the crease and was opened up to play the defensive shot only to get a nick which flew towards wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, who made no mistake to grab the catch.
Here is the video:
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