Pune: Star South African seamer Kagiso Rabada removed Indian opener Mayank Agarwal in 61st over to put a brake on Indian innings. Agarwal departed after smashing his second century in the ongoing three-match Test against South Africa, here, on Thursday.
Interestingly, it is the second century for Mayank in as many games while playing Test in India.
Meanwhile, the second session of the first day was a bit similar to the opening Test match as in both the cases Indian batters outperformed South African bowlers.
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That's another fine century from @mayankcricket 🙌👌 pic.twitter.com/6jWSOKwMUg
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 10, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">That's another fine century from @mayankcricket 🙌👌 pic.twitter.com/6jWSOKwMUg
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 10, 2019That's another fine century from @mayankcricket 🙌👌 pic.twitter.com/6jWSOKwMUg
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 10, 2019
The highlight of the day was Agarwal's approach against fast bowling and Cheteshwar Pujara's perfect technique while tackling the spinners.
The duo added 138 runs for the second wicket in the first two sessions with minimum fuss despite India losing Rohit Sharma's (14) wicket in the first hour itself.
The South African bowlers hit better lengths during the first session, especially Kagiso Rabada (2/39 in 13 overs), who got first Test hero Rohit (14 off 35 balls). Rabada bowled a beautiful delivery that pitched on length and moved only a shade to kiss the outside edge of Rohit's bat before going into wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock's gloves.
Rabada was unlucky to miss out on a second wicket -- of Pujara -- when Temba Bavuma, at short leg, missed a reflex catch. The batsman was yet to get off the mark at that stage.
He finally got Pujara, caught at first slip but not before the India No.3 had scored his 22nd Test half-century.
During the first hour, Agarwal was all cautious against Vernon Philander and Rabada bowled a probing first spell.
The 28-year-old Agarwal was smart enough to wait for the third seamer in rookie Anrich Nortje (0/46 in 10 overs) to be introduced into the attack.
Nortje was clearly the fastest of the trio of pacers and Agarwal started with a streaky boundary between the slips but soon got into the groove with a number of boundaries through the off-side.
Nortje, with his pace, was guilty of bowling fuller deliveries at a drivable length outside the off-stump.
In fact, Dale Steyn's twitter advice "Use that short leg", was meant for Nortje, advising him to alter the length.
In one of his overs before lunch, Agarwal hit an off-drive followed by two cover drives.
In the post-lunch session, Nortje tried to hit the back of length but Agarwal had already completed his half century and was well set. The moment Nortje pitched it short, he went back and across to play a couple of pull shots.
On the other hand, Pujara began on a cautious note and it was only after left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj (0/51 in 17 overs) was brought into the attack, the Saurashtra right-hander upped the ante.
In his very first over, he used his feet to come to the pitch of the deliveries, hitting two elegant on-drives. A third on-drive also came along the way off Rabada's bowling.
Watching Pujara use his feet against Maharaj, Agarwal got the confidence in the post-lunch session despite being beaten by a couple of classical left-armer's deliveries, which pitched on the leg and middle stumps and turned away for the right-hander.
He completed his half-century off 112 balls with a cut shot.
Pujara, on the other end, hit first six off the match when Senuran Muthusamy provided a half-tracker that was dispatched into the deep square leg stands.
He completed his half-century with a cut shot off Maharaj that raced to the boundary. He was out soon after, missing out on a three-figure mark which was there for the taking.
