01:57
Dasgupta: Unfortunate for KL Rahul to miss out
Tea: India 245 for 2 (Vijay 101*, Kohli 94*) v Sri Lanka
In deference to the Indian team management’s wishes, there was grass on the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, but Virat Kohli, at the toss, wished there could have been more. It certainly wasn’t enough to turn New Delhi into Newlands, and India, instead of surviving a testing first day against snarling South African fast bowlers, settled into a typically subcontinental bat-first, bat-big pattern against a limited Sri Lanka attack, facing more spin (31 overs) than seam (26) in the first two sessions.
By tea, M Vijay had brought up his second hundred in successive innings while cruising at a strike rate of nearly 60, and Kohli was on the verge of his third in a row, while rattling along at close to a run a ball. In the process, Kohli had also become the fourth-quickest Indian batsman to 5000 Test runs, getting there in his 105th innings.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo