By Neil Manthorp.
South Africa claimed three quick wickets before the tea break to emphatically enhance their domination of the first test against India in Centurion on Thursday as the tourists limped into the break on a woeful 62-3, still trailing the hosts by 101-runs.
Kagiso Rabada claimed the prized wicket of Rohit Sharma with an unplayable leg-cutter which nipped past the outside edge to it the top of off-stump and bowl the Indian captain for an eight-ball duck.
Fellow opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal (5), gloved an aggressive bouncer from left-armer Nandre Burger into the gloves of ‘keeper Kyle Verreynne and Shubman Gill (26) was bowled by a fast, full-length delivery from Marco Jansen from around the wicket.
Shreyas Iyer (6) was dropped on two by Keegan Petersen at third slip off Jansen and will resume after the tea break in the company of Virat Kohli (18*) with a mountain to climb.
Earlier Jansen was left stranded with the bat on a brilliant, unbeaten 84 as Jasprit Bumrah claimed the last two South Africa wickets to dismiss the home side for a mighty 408 after lunch. History suggests that South Africa’s first innings lead of 163-runs will be a match-winning one.
Bumrah (4-69) bowled Kagiso Rabada (1) shortly after the lunch break and then yorked last man Nandre Burger after a defiant nought from 20 balls as he fought gamely to accompany Jansen to a maiden century.
Dean Elgar and Jansen added a match-changing 111-runs for the sixth wicket in the morning session to put South Africa in complete control of the test match before Elgar was dismissed for a brilliant 185 shortly before the lunch break and Jansen took the dismissal as a chance to accelerate.
Resuming with an unbeaten 140, Elgar applied himself with the same diligence as he had at the start of his innings before, once again, taking full advantage of most scoring opportunities which came his way with a pair of cover drives especially memorable.
India had been hoping the second new ball would change their fortunes but it was already 14 overs old before a Shardul Thakur bouncer finally did the trick with Elgar cramped for room and gloving it down the leg side to ‘keeper KL Rahul with the total on 360 and the lead an imposing 115.
Elgar’s first century at his home ground gave him a ‘full set’ of 100s at all of South Africa’s test venues with his 185 coming from 287 balls with 28 fours.
Jansen took the dismissal as a cue to ‘tee off’ and launched Thakur for a mighty, ‘pay-back’ six onto the grass embankment at deep midwicket and followed it with a rasping four through the covers against the same bowler.
Gerald Coetzee delivered an entertaining cameo of 19 from only 18 balls with a couple of fours and a sizzling six against offspinner R.Ashwin over long on before driving the same bowler to mid off.
Injured captain Temba Bavuma, who damaged his left hamstring on the first day, did not appear at number 11 in what might have been a futile attempt to accompany Jansen to three figures as he finished with 84* from 147 balls with 11 fours and a six.
South Africa: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (captain), Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wkt), Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger
India:Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.