SA vs IND | 2nd Test, Day 1: Duanne Olivier rattles India as Pujara, Rahane continue to disappoint

A brilliant comeback after a poor and ineffective first spell of bowling from Duanne Olivier pushed India on backfoot in the first session of the second Test against South Africa.

Olivier was trusted to partner Kagiso Rabada with the new ball over Lungi Ngidi, who had taken a five-wicket haul in the last Test, but he looked short of rhythm and offered half volleys to Mayank Agarwal. The right-hander was up to the task and hit him for two boundaries to get India off to a confident start.

The duo carried on with their usual patterns from the last game. KL Rahul was more defensive of the two but he received the most number of good balls from the Proteas pace bowling attack. He was particularly troubled by Lungi Ngidi, who bowled the best among the pacers in the first half of the first session.

The first success though came to Marco Jansen, who got one to angle across Mayank Agarwal right after the drinks break and the right-hander could not resist the temptation to drive the ball.

On the other hand, Rahul was going strong as ever while Cheteshwar Pujara was battling the pace attack on a surface offering spongy bounce and a lot of demons in his mind. He was defensive as ever and never tried to put South Africa pacers under pressure even when they offered him short and wide deliveries.

Olivier was brought back into the attack just before the lunch break and he was all warmed up for the role of enforcer after a poor start. He first extracted the extra bounce he has been known for to take the splice of Pujara’s bat and Temba Bavuma took an easy opportunity.

Virat Kohli’s absence pushed Ajinkya Rahane to the top order and a lot was expected of him at the number four slot. However, continuing the trend of his career over the last few years, he failed to make good use of his fluency and form from the first Test and played a nervous poke way outside off stump to give catching practice to Keegan Petersen.

All the hard work of KL Rahul and positive intent from Mayank Agarwal was squandered in a span of two deliveries by Olivier and India will have to bat really well in the remaining two sessions of the day to post a fighting total on the board.

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