Former Indian captain Virat Kohli scored 38 off 64 balls on Day 1 of the first Test between India and South Africa at Centurion. Kohli took a break from the white-ball series against South Africa and returned for the two-match Test series.
Kohli had his work cut out for him from day one. The South African pacers put pressure on the Indian batsmen and reduced India to 24/3. Kohli came out to bat and seemed to play with intent right from the start.
He played the ball on merit and also looked to score. The former Indian captain needed just 16 runs to surpass Rahul Dravid’s tally of 1252 runs against South Africa. Kohli surpassed the former Indian captain and now has 1274 runs to his credit.
He has a chance to surpass Virender Sehwag’s tally of 1306 runs against South Africa when he bats in the second innings. Sachin Tendulkar stands at the top of India’s run-getter against South Africa with 1741 runs in 25 Test matches.
Virat Kohli reaches 1274 Tests against South Africa and is only behind Sachin Tendulkar. Virender Sehwag
South Africa won the toss and asked India to bat first in Centurion. Prasidh Krishna will make his Test debut for India while Nande Burger for South Africa. Kagiso Rabada took his first fifty against India to pose problems for the batting line-up in the first over.
India lost wickets at regular intervals as Rabada bowled with pace and fire. He edged Kohli outside the stump to dismiss the former Indian captain. Until then, Kohli looked good in every shot he played.
Talking about Virat Kohli’s dismissal in the first innings, former South African captain AB de Villiers explained how the Protean players can dismiss the former Indian captain. ABD talked about bowling Kohli on the fourth stump line to be successful. Kagiso Rabada did exactly the same thing and was successful.
“The only way to get a Virat Kohli-type batsman out is a very orthodox way of bowling in the fourth channel and playing a waiting game. And wait for that delivery that moves away a little bit,” de Villiers told PTI.
“You can’t attack a good player, he was straight,” De Villiers told PTI during an exclusive interview ahead of the Boxing Day Test that begins on December 26.
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ABD also compared Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli just before the start of the Test series against South Africa. He said it was always difficult to get both batters out.
“As in the case of Tendulkar, it was foolish to always wait for the leg before (of an incoming delivery). Because he would hit you at mid-wicket. So make those deliveries outside the off stump (to Virat) and wait for one to come in or go out,” de Villiers concluded.
India vs South Africa Test Teams
India Test Team: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (week), Abhimanyu Easwaran.
South Africa Test Team: Temba Bavuma (c), David Bedingham, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne (wk ).
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