India and South Africa are taking on each other in the first Test of a two-match series at the latter’s home. The Men in Blue began bowling on Day 2 of the Test with 245 runs behind them. However, owing to dismal bowling in the second session, a breakthrough eluded them which led Virat Kohli to try a Stuart Broad thing of swapping the bail.
Kohli swapped the bail before the 29th over of the innings which was to be bowled by Jasprit Bumrah. On the final delivery of the same over, Bumrah got Tony de Zorzi caught at third slip which broke the 93-run stand. The England great, who originated the bail swap act at the Ashes this year, has now reacted to Kohli’s trick. Taking to social media, Broad wrote, “With success” and tagged Kohli in his X post.
Notably, Broad did the same trick in the Ashes 2023 series. When the wickets were eluding the English team, Broad came up with a bail-swap moment and then got rid of Marnus Labuschagne on the very next delivery. Like the English fans, the Indian fans enjoyed the moment too. Several people connected the two incidents on social media.
India playing catch-up
Notably, India are now playing catch-up after allowing South Africa to free up in the second session. The Proteas had scored 49/1 at lunch but after the break, the Indians did not show as much discipline as needed. They started with their third-choice bowler and debutant Prasidh Krishna and leaked loads of runs. The hosts scored 145 runs in the second session but lost two wickets too. By the end of the second session, the hosts were 194/3 and only 51 short of India’s total. In the final session, the hosts added 62 more runs from 17 overs and lost two more wickets in the form of David Bedingham and Kyle Verreynne. South Africa now lead by 11 runs.