Johannesburg: The story post-lunch remained the same as India trudged to 146 for 5 wickets at Tea against South Africa, losing in-form batsman and stand-in skipper KL Rahul (50 off 133 balls), and struggling to cope with the bounce at the Wanderers stadium here on Monday.
Rishabh Pant (13) along with R Ashwin are at the crease as the visitors are struggling in the face of accuracy and extra bounce fetched by the tall Proteas bowlers to post a good first innings total.
However, Ashwin came up with a useful contribution scoring 24 runs off just 21 deliveries.
A lot will now depend on how Pant takes the proceedings forward and support shown by the tail to the aggressive batsman, who has so far remained cautious on a helpful pitch.
Meanwhile, South Africa have made a good comeback after faltering in the first match as they look to save the series with their bowlers delivering quality performance.
For them, Duanne Olivier and Marco Jansen chipped in with two wickets each while lead bowler Kagiso Rabada dismissed Hanuma Vihari, who was driving and defending the ball well, on 20 runs.
Earlier, India had lost three wickets in the morning session.
India are leading the series 1-0, having won the Centurion Test by 113 runs.
Brief Scores:
India 1st innings: 146/5 for five in 51 overs. (Mayank Agarwal 26, KL Rahul 50; Duanne Olivier 2/47, Marco Jansen 2/18).