India reached tea on day three of the third Test against India at the Wanderers on Friday on 199/6 and a comfortable second innings lead of 192 runs after South Africa dropped two routine catches in the session.
Despite the disappointment of Dean Elgar and Andile Phehlukwayo giving Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anjikya Rahane respective lifelines‚ South Africa took the two wickets of India captain Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya in the second session.
India resume in the third and final session with Rahane (46) and Kumar (23) looking to build on their promising partnership of 51 off 71 balls.
When they returned from lunch‚ South Africa got the breakthrough when Kagiso Rabada produced a brilliant delivery that pitched on a good length to crush the top of Kohli’s off-stump‚ who had to walk back to the pavilion having scored 41 runs off 79 balls.
Kohli‚ who has overtaken MS Dhoni as India’s highest run-scorer as Test captain‚ played an exceptional knock as he left dangerous balls‚ defended well and punished loose balls on this Wanderers pitch that was extremely difficult to bat on.
He has finished the series on 286 runs after six innings with the highest score of 153‚ achieved in Centurion in the second Test.
Rabada got his third of the day when he caught and bowled a careless Hardik Pandya and later Morne Morkel could have pocketed his second of the day but Dean Elgar missed a sitter at slips after Kumar thick-edged the ball on 15 runs.
Five balls later India rode their luck again when Rahane was dropped by Andile Phehlukwayo at deep point.
In the 58th over umpires Ian Gould and Aleem Dar converged for a brief chat in the middle after the ball from Rabada bounced alarmingly to hit Rahane on the hand‚ but ordered play to continue.
In the first session‚ Vernon Philander removed KL Rahul‚ Cheteshwar Pujara was a victim of Morkel and Rababa accounted for Murali Vijay with a properly executed yorker.
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