Continuing his rich vein of form, stand-in captain KL Rahul struck a half-century but fell right after as India lost two more wickets before the tea-break on the opening day of the second Test against South Africa in Johannesburg. When the session ended, India were 146/5 in 51 overs with Ravichandran Ashwin (24*) and Rishabh Pant (13*) the two unbeaten batters.
The session began on a decent note for India with Rahul and Hanuma Vihari resuming the innings. However, a stunning catch from Rassie van der Dussen at short leg as Vihari lobbed one to short leg region off Kagiso Rabada ended his innings quickly on 20.
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Rahul, meanwhile continued to bat with intent, producing sumptuous drives and in his first innings as India captain, struck a half-century. However, the short delivery proved to be his undoing as he top-edged one from Marco Jansen to be brilliantly caught by Rabada in the deep on 50.
With half their batters back in the dressing room, Ashwin and Pant have so far done well to prevent the innings from a free-fall having added 30 runs so far but the pair has their task cut out on a pitch with uneven bounce.
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Earlier, India won the toss and opted to bat first with captain Virat Kohli ruled out due to a back spasm. The opening pair of Rahul and Mayank Agarwal started well and rode the first hour of play safely before a drinks-break broke their momentum.
South Africa fielded a four-pronged pace attack as they hope to draw level in the three-match series. And it was left-arm Jansen, playing in just his second Test, who made the breakthrough when he lured Agarwal into poking at a delivery outside off and getting him to edge that to the wicketeeper on 26.
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That brought under-pressure Cheteshwar Pujara to the middle and he survived a couple of close calls before finally running out of luck when he was caught off Duanne Olivier in gully. And Olivier struck off the next delivery as well, this time getting rid of Ajinkya Rahane for a golden duck to leave India in trouble.
Brief Scores: India 146/5 (KL Rahul 50; Marco Jansen 2/18, Duanne Olivier 2/47) vs South Africa at Tea on Day 1
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