India won the toss and elected to bat. Jadeja came in for Ashwin, and Peterson came in for Tahir. Dhoni said India now have a lot of overseas Tests lined up, and if they are to play only one spinner, they will have to take a call on who to play depending on conditions. So Ashwin's place as the lead spinner in overseas Tests is no longer guaranteed. That last day at Wanderers has gone against him, and he is out on a pitch that is expected to help spinners much more than Johannesburg did. Shaun Pollock said on air that he had never seen a harder pitch at Kingsmead. Plenty of grass cover, but most of it was dead grass, he pointed out, and was not sure how much it will assist seam. Few cracks around also, and they will come into play as the game goes on.
Out came Jacques Kallis leading the South Africa team onto the field amid warm applause and a guard of honour by some children thanking him for his contribution to the game of cricket in the last test of his career. S Dhawan and M Vijay came out to open as Dale Steyn was ready to bowl the 1st over of the match. Dhawan got going on the 2nd ball as he hit Steyn for a four. Both of them were looking at ease before a Morkel delivery got the better of Dhawan. Morkel striked first ball after drinks, pitched it up from round the stumps, Dhawan pushed forward at it, and it moved away slightly in the air to hit the edge and it was a simple catch to Petersen at third slip, leaving India short of yet another good opening partnership at 41/0. Pujara came in at 3 and looked well set for a big innings from the 1st ball he played. The day was full of some excellent shots from both Vijay and Pujara as once again India got the upper hand against the hosts. Bad light stopped play with almost a session lost.
With India in a commanding position at 181/1, Vijay at an unbeaten 91 and Pujara at an unbeaten 58, India will be looking to put up a huge score on Day 2 and will try everything which will let them not to bat a 2nd time in this test.
We'll start early tomorrow, at 9.30am to cover up for some of the lost overs.
Out came Jacques Kallis leading the South Africa team onto the field amid warm applause and a guard of honour by some children thanking him for his contribution to the game of cricket in the last test of his career. S Dhawan and M Vijay came out to open as Dale Steyn was ready to bowl the 1st over of the match. Dhawan got going on the 2nd ball as he hit Steyn for a four. Both of them were looking at ease before a Morkel delivery got the better of Dhawan. Morkel striked first ball after drinks, pitched it up from round the stumps, Dhawan pushed forward at it, and it moved away slightly in the air to hit the edge and it was a simple catch to Petersen at third slip, leaving India short of yet another good opening partnership at 41/0. Pujara came in at 3 and looked well set for a big innings from the 1st ball he played. The day was full of some excellent shots from both Vijay and Pujara as once again India got the upper hand against the hosts. Bad light stopped play with almost a session lost.
With India in a commanding position at 181/1, Vijay at an unbeaten 91 and Pujara at an unbeaten 58, India will be looking to put up a huge score on Day 2 and will try everything which will let them not to bat a 2nd time in this test.
We'll start early tomorrow, at 9.30am to cover up for some of the lost overs.
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