Visakhapatnam: The class has been stamped in the maiden appearance itself and it will now be all about building from here on as Rohit Sharma drove, cut and flicked his way to his maiden Test hundred as an opener and fourth Test century overall in the second session of the first Test between India and South Africa at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Wednesday.
Starting the session at 91/0, the Indian openers put on 111 runs in the post-lunch session when umpires called for an early break owing to bad light. While Rohit was batting on 115, Mayank Agarwal was unbeaten on 84 as the South Africa bowlers had no answer to the quality batting on display.
The second session was once again dominated by the Indians, but primarily by India's new opener -- Rohit. Rising to the challenge handed to him by the team management, Rohit stole the show as his cautious approach was overtaken by the free-flowing batsmen one is used to seeing in the limited-overs format in the second session.
After playing cautiously at the start of the innings, it was all about punishing not just the bad balls, but also the good ones as the batsman brought up his fourth Test hundred in a session that saw the Indian batsmen take the Proteas bowlers to the cleaners. The partnership between him and Mayank also saw them register India's first 100-run partnership at the top of the innings since June 2018.
Earlier, in the first hour of the game, both the openers looked to be more cautious in their approach as both Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada bowled decent lines. But once the spinners were introduced, both Rohit and Mayank changed gears.
India's playing XI: Virat Kohli (Capt), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ishant Sharma, Md Shami.
South Africa's playing XI: Faf du Plessis (Capt), Temba Bavuma (vc), Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Senuran Muthusamy, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada.
