India and South Africa is slugging it out to in the final and third Test in Cape Town which will also decide the winners of the three match Test series which stands still at 1-1. With India giving a tough contest, South Africa's batter Keegan Petersen feels that skipper Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have been a “bit of a headache" for South Africa and scalping their wickets would be the key for them going forward in the match.
India lost both their openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal cheaply once again in the second innings but Pujara (9 not out) and Kohli (14 not out) henceforth steered the Indian innings and saw through the second day to augment their overall lead to 70 runs.
“The key would be to pick up a few early wickets tomorrow morning… The two batting now have been a bit of a headache for us in the last couple of innings," Petersen said in the media interaction post second day's play.
Captain Kohli led the performers in the first innings with his tenacious 79 which came off in 201 balls while Pujara also chipped in to bolster the Indian innings with an impressive 43 off 77 after a flurry of wickets.
“He’s (Kohli) one of the best batters in the world and he’s showed that time and again. Yes, he will be the big wicket tomorrow and if we can get his wicket early, it will open up the game," Petersen added.
Petersen, who hit 72 off 166 balls, was the top scorer for the home side as they were dismissed by India for 210, conceding a 13-run first innings lead.
“We would have been happy if we overcame the deficit and got a bit of a lead. That was the plan coming into the game today," he said.
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah returned with a fiery spell of fast bowling on Newlands track on Day 2 to pick up his seventh five-wicket haul in Tests and bowl South Africa out for 210, thus handing India a 13-run first-innings lead.
All of India’s pace bowlers were excellent with Bumrah (5/42) leading the way with his movement off the surface and ability to extract bounce on the seaming wicket. Mohammed Shami (2/39), Umesh Yadav (2/64) and Shardul Thakur (1/37) were also among the wicket-takers.
