Rahul hits hundred as India punish wayward South Africa

With his fifth Test century outside Asia, KL Rahul led India to a position of dominance in the first Test of the series. On an uncharacteristically flat track, South Africa’s attack, for some reason missing Duanne Olivier, lacked the menace or the discipline to create indecision from the batters. A lot of the questions India’s batting had over them coming into the series were questions posed by extremely tough conditions they almost always play in. The moment they got a good batting pitch, they ended the day at 272 for 3.

Rahul and Mayank Agarwal – Boxing Day buddies from Bangalore – put together India’s first century opening stand in South Africa since 2010 before Rahul added two stands worth 82 each with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. South Africa managed to draw just the 60 false responses in the whole day. You expect at least one an over from a good attack on a decent Test surface.