The Indian opening duo of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal failed to make a mark in the first innings of the ongoing Cape Town Test but the pair went past Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to become India’s most successful Test opening pair in South Africa. The Delhi duo were previously at the first position, having scored 184 runs on South Africa soil in the red-ball format. Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik are on the third spot with 153 runs between them for the opening partnership.
Rahul and Mayank are now at the top of the list of Indian opening pairs who have got the most runs on the South African soil. The Karnataka pair made their way back with low scores but the two became the first Indian opening duo to register 200+ runs in Tests in South Africa.
Rahul scored 12 before nicking a delivery from Duanne Olivier to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne. Agarwal followed him back to the dressing room soon as he got out for 15 after a thick outside edge off his bat against Kagiso Rabada which carried to Aiden Markram in the slip cordon.
The Karnataka pair added 31 runs for the first wicket after skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and final Test of the series at Newlands, Cape Town.
In the Test series opener at Centurion, Rahul and Mayank had become the third Indian opening pair in Indian Test history to stitch a 100-run stand in a match in South Africa. They joined the likes of Jaffer and Karthik who had scored 153 in the Cape Town Test in 2007 and Gambhir and Sehwag, who scored 137 in the Centurion Test in 2010.
After losing both openers, Pujara played some exquisite drives before Marco Jansen set him up and got him out caught behind in the second session. But Kohli continued and played some crunching drives through the covers while keeping his defence solid. Ajinkya Rahane too played a couple of lovely shots before Rabada induced an outside edge which landed in Verreynne's gloves.
With series tied at 1-1 after a seven-wicket defeat to the Proteas at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. India are chasing their first-ever Test series win in the Rainbow nation. India had won the first Test match of the series convincingly at SuperSport Park, Centurion.
