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India opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal provided the team with a strong start to their first innings against South Africa in the second Test. After the Proteas had posted a humongous target of 489 on the board, the opening pair of Jaiswal and KL Rahul formed a 65-run stand to start off the innings on a positive note.
Jaiswal continued his blistering form in Tests and went on to score a robust half-century. Though he wasn't able to convert it into a big knock and got dismissed by spinner Simon Harmer for 58 runs, the half-century saw him reach a total of 20 fifty-plus scores in the World Test Championship (WTC).
Jaiswal is now the opening batter with the second-most fifty-plus scores in WTC history and is only behind Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne, who has 21 fifty-plus scores under his name in the tournament. Jaiswal surpassed both Usman Khawaja and Zak Crawley on the elite list with his solid innings.
Most 50+ scores by opening batters in WTC history -
1. Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka) - 21 scores
2. Yashasvi Jaiswal (India) - 20 scores
3. Zak Crawley (England) - 19 scores
4. Usman Khawaja (Australia) - 19 scores
5. Tom Latham (New Zealand) - 18 scores
India batters disappoint in abysmal performance
Meanwhile, Jaiswal's dismissal saw India suffer a batting collapse and get restricted down to 122/7 at one stage. They ended up losing six wickets in a space of just 27 runs as the South African bowlers completely took over. Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer were the pick of the bowlers as they decimated India's top and middle-order.
Jansen bags stunning 6-fer
While Jansen recorded figures of 6/48, Harmer also contributed well with three scalps as the hosts got bowled out for just 201 runs as the Proteas took a gigantic lead of 288 runs. Despite being far ahead in the match, they decided to not enforce follow-on and returned to bat for their second innings. It now remains to be seen as to how big of a target will the visitors hand over to the hosts with there still being two full days left to play.
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