India vs South Africa Highlights, 3rd Test, Day 1: SA reach 17/1 at Stumps, trail IND by 206 runs; Kohli shines with 79

ON THE BOARD! KL Rahul miscues his drive through the off side and ball rushes towards long on off the inside edge of the bat. The batter run 2.

FOUR BYES! Rabada strays down leg. The ball swung away sharply and whizzed past the keeper for 4. There was a definitive sound and the umpire says it came from Rahul's bat hitting the pads.

BEAUTY! After going too straight first up, Rabada finally finds the 4th stump channel with the outswinger. On good length, it jags away and beats Rahul's outside egde.

AND AGAIN! Once again, he beats Rahul's bat with a peach of a delivery. 

IND are 6/0 after 1 over

Indian openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul have walked out to bat. 

Kagiso Rabada to open the attack. LET'S PLAY!

The players have walked out. Time for the national anthem. India's first followed by South Africa's

(On his birthday vibes today) When you get older, you're not sure what to feel when you get wished on your birthday. But it feels nice. Did get a lot of wishes from friends and family. We did got the score we would have liked in the fourth innings, we would have liked a 240-250 score. But the pitch probably didn't do that much, maybe it had to do with the height. Bowling with the wet ball also didn't help but credit to South Africa, they batted really well. At this level, you really don't need to motivate the players to do well. Playing for India and the opportunity to make history here is a big thing in itself. We've performed well in the series, the energy is good in the camp. Maybe some areas could have been better last game, could have scored a few more runs perhaps and some of the shot selection could have been better. We managed to get 272/3 on the first day of the series, that's the kind of performances we expect when we get out to bat, obviously can't get that every time but it shows the quality we have. If we have runs on the board, I'm sure we'll be very competitive in this game

vs SA: 10 toss wins in 12 Tests (83.3%)

vs other teams: 21 toss wins in 56 Tests (37.5%)

 "The grass will give a bit more pace, there seems to be some moisture on this surface. So it could be slow to start with. There is a bit of tackiness to it and as a captain you have to think about day 4 and day 5. One end offers more bounce and the other end offers more lateral movement, and to be effective you might wanna err little bit on the fuller side. There are a few cracks and if those open up it might be trouble for the batters. A decent surface, but a tale of two ends" 

“There are some drops of rain but we do expect the play to start on time. The pitch is covered and we expect a fine afternoon," says Mark Nicholas during the broadcast on SuperSport

"Ideally, you want to bat first on this surface and given the overhead conditions it might not be a bad idea to bowl first. The cricket we have been playing the last few months been very special given the number of players we lost. One good thing about having younger guys come in is that they come with a fresh, new mindset which is quite warming for us and then me who has this old school mentality which has been a balancing act for us and obviously we try to implement that with what we have in the change room. We are unchanged."

"You cannot control what's above your head. Runs on this venue have always worked out well at this venue. I am fit and fine. I come in for Vihari. Siraj missed out because of a niggle and Umesh comes in for him. Umesh has been very potent with the ball recently, very handy in the field and with the bat as well. It was a tough decision to choose between the two. We are expected to win every Test we play overseas and that fourth innings chase from South Africa was a special one from them. It is a beautiful stadium and we are very excited."

Team News:

IND- Virat Kohli and Umesh Yadav IN for Hanuma Vihari and Mohammed Siraj

SA- Unchanged

Dean Elgar(c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi

KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav

Virat Kohli has won the toss and India have opted to bat first

The legend says if India wins the toss, they should bat first.

Meanwhile, Team India is all geared up

India is yet to which a Test series in South Africa.

India has never won a Test match at Cape Town.

South Africa Squad: Dean Elgar(c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi, Prenelan Subrayen, Beuran Hendricks, Sisanda Magala, George Linde, Wiaan Mulder, Sarel Erwee, Ryan Rickelton, Glenton Stuurman

India Squad: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Mohammed Siraj, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer

IND Predicted XI vs SA, 3rd Test: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma.

• 79: Ajinkya Rahane needs 79 more runs to complete 5000 Test runs.

• 1 & 2: Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli needs 1 and 2 more catches to complete 100 Test catches.

Mohammad Shami with 11 wickets is leading the Indian bowling attack in this series and bowled 71 overs so far.

• Against South Africa he has picked 45 wickets in 10 Tests which is the most wickets for him against any team in his career.

If Shami picks 5 more wickets, he will be the 5th Indian bowler and 2nd Indian pacer after Javagal Srinath to pick 50 Test wickets vs SA.

o Anil Kumble- 84 wkts, 31.79 Avg, 81.3 SR

o Javagal Srinath- 64 wkts, 24.48 Avg, 51.7 SR

o Harbhajan Singh- 60 wkts, 28.40 Avg, 59.4 SR

o R Ashwin- 56 wkts, 20.76 Avg, 49.8 SR

• Shami who has a bowling strike rate of 40.5 against SA is the best by a bowler in this century (Since 2000) with minimum 300 overs bowled.

In bilateral Test series’ of 3 or more matches, India have been part of 33 series decider matches (Equal series scoreline before the last match of the series).

• India have won 12 out of 33, lost 8 and drawn 13.

• In away matches, India is among the best team in series deciders. 

Also, India’s last series decider Test was against Australia at Brisbane in 2021.

• Interestingly, 5 out of India’s 6 series decider victories in Tests have come in 21st century.

Matches-  58 Tests

Wins- 26

Lost- 21

Draw-11

However, it remains the most successful venue for South Africa in Tests.

There have been 5 Tests at this venue between South Africa and India, the home team won 3, drawn 2 and lost none.

o Also, the last time South Africa lost back to back Tests at Cape Town was between 1957-1962.

• Moreover, 16 out of the 21 defeats and 23 out of their 26 wins at Cape Town post their readmission after Apartheid in 1991.

The coin toss is just 30 minutes again. Which side and captain will the coin favour? 

The last time Cape Town hosted a Test match was 2 years back between the home team against England.

The visiting team won the match by 189 runs, which was also the first defeat for the home team at the venue after March 2014.