India vs South Africa Highlights 1st Test Day 1: Bad light stops play after KL Rahul's gritty fifty takes IND to 208/8

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: "We'll bowl first. Wicket has been under covers, we want to use the moisture and make early inroads. Our boys have all got into reasonably fit conditions, Lungi is the only one who's not yet fully fit. Two debutants today - Nandre Burger and David Bedingham. We're playing with four seamers for this one. It is always difficult to come up against India, but we are ready with our preparation."

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma(c), Keegan Petersen, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Nandre Burger

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: The BCCI just announced that Jadeja "complained of upper back spasms on the morning of the match." "He was not available for selection for the first Test," the board said.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: South Africa have won the toss and Temba Bavuma says they will bowl first.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Temba Bavuma and Rohit Sharma are out there in their blazers. Pommie Mbangwa is conducting the toss.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Toss is scheduled for 1.45pm IST. There has been no rain, in stark contrast to what has been the forecast for the past couple of days. All we can do, is keep our fingers crossed and hope those dark clouds upstairs never open up today, or tomorrow.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Jasprit Bumrah has handed Prasidh Krishna his debut cap in the Indian team huddle. There we go then. He made his first class debut in 2015 and injuries have kept his red ball appearances down to 15. Now he is set to play a Test match for India in South Africa.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: The inspection is done, the umpies have gone and spoken with Rohit Sharma and it seems the toss is imminent. The broadcasters say that it will take place in 15 minutes.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Dravid spoke with the broadcasters and this is what he had to say about Prasidh Krishna. There has been a debate about whether India will fill the Mohammed Shami hole with Prasidh or Mukesh Kumar. "Prasidh is a promising prospect, but we have to be realistic that this is his first Test match. He hasn't had a lot of first-class cricket to fall back on because of a number of reasons. But I'm hoping he has a good game and enjoys himself. It's such a lovely moment when we give out a new cap to someone," he said. That should solve the puzzle.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Quite a few damp spots on the pitch which are being dried out with a hair-dryer. The players are warming up and well, there is a former player warming up as well. Rahul Dravid rolled his arms for a few balls, much to the amusement of his wards and the broadcasters and everyone watching. The great man does have one Test wicket, and that too of West Indies' Ridley Jacobs while he was batting on 118 in 2002. Wonder if a shock return is on the cards. Probably not. However, Dravid did seem to let slip that India will be handing a debut cap today in his interview with the broadcasters....

It was in this country, remember, that Bumrah made his Test debut and showed the world that he is the real deal and not just a T20I four-over burst bowler. He took one wicket in the first innings of his first Test in Cape Town, and that was of none other than the great AB de Villiers just when the former South African looked set for yet another masterful century. He has taken 127 more wickets in the format since then and South Africa has been a happy hunting ground for him. Bumrah has taken 26 wickets in Tests played in the country in six matches at an average of 24.38.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Well it seems there is a lot of positivity around Kagiso Rabada but not so much around Lungi Ngidi. Shaun Pollock said on Star Sports that he might not really be ready yet for full fledged Test cricket.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Good covering of grass. Teams tend to bat first because it tends to start a bit slow. As the Test progresses, there might be a bit of up and down movement which could be tricky to handle. Batting will get difficult as the Test progresses. With the weather conditions, South Africa would be tempted to go without a spinner. With the sun out, the pitch tends to crack a bit more and get the spinners into play. Don't expect the pitch to change too much across the Test. The best approach is bat first, guts it out in the first two session and be happy if you're just 2 down at Lunch.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: The BCCI has said that toss and start of the Test has been delayed "due to wet patches on the outfield". "Further inspection at 10:00 AM (1.30 PM IST)," it further says in its tweet.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Or the end of the Virat Kohli era. Kohli didn't retire of course, on the contrary he seems to have rediscovered his mojo since that series. But, he stepped down as India's Test captain after the third and final Test in that series ended on January 14. With some of South Africa's greats having retired and India looking arguably their strongest in their Test history away from home, this was seen as the latters' best chance to end their drought in South Africa. They won the first Test but the young South African side trounced them in the second and third. By the time the final day came around, the Indians were a frustrated lot, snapping at the broadcasters through stump mics due to reviews that went against them. They won the first Test, as mentioned earlier, by 113 runs. Then they lost the second and third by seven wickets each. Kohli had already stepped down as India's T20I captain and had also been removed from the position in ODIs. He had also stepped down from captaincy of RCB in the IPL. With this series, he officially went back to being a player. And as he has shown in the months since, a player as vital to India's cause as ever.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: There is about an hour to go for the toss and it remains quite cloud in Centurion. Rain hasn't started yet but it is expected to do so in an hour which means that it is safe to assume still that toss would be delayed. Moreover, it has been raining here before today and while the pitch and infield was covered, the outfield wasn't. So it remains to be seen if the ground will be dry enough for cricket even if it doesn't rain.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Now India were at the wrong end of the result the second time they played in Centurion, which led to captain Virat Kohli being at his fiery best, or worst depending on how you look at it, in the post-match press conference. But they tasted success the last time they played here. India batted first adn KL Rahul scored 123 in a 117-run opening stand with Mayank Agarwal, with the latter scoring 60. Captain Kohli then made 35 while Ajinkya Rahane made 48 as India were all out for 327. Lungi Ngidi ended with figures of 6/71 in his 24 overs. The Indian pacers were unleashed after that with Mohammed Shami picking five, Mohammed Siraj taking one while Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur took two wickets each. India then scored 174 in their second innings and set a target of 305 for South Africa to chase. While captain Elgar scored 77, there was precious little from the others as Bumrah, Shami and Siraj ran through the Proteas lineup. Bumrah and Shami picked three wickets each while Siraj got two. Ravichandran Ashwin finished the job by knocking off the last two wickets. Rahul won the player of the match, although there were many who felt that the award should've gone to Shami.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: India have faced South Africa three times in Centurion. In the first that was played in December 2010, they were left battered and bruised by South Africa's batting and bowling strength and lost that game by an innings and 25 runs. India, captained by MS Dhoni batted first and were all out for 136 runs with Morne Morkel taking five wickets and Dale Steyn picking up three. Jacques Kallis picked one wicket and he went on to score an unbeaten 201 in 270 balls. In fact all of South Africans who batted in their innings scored at least a half-century with captain Graeme Smith scoring 62, Alviro Petersen making 77, Hashim Amla scoring 140 and AB de Villiers hammering 129 in 112 balls. South Africa declared on 620/4. India made a good fist of their second innings, eventually being all out for 459 runs. Openers Gautam Gambhir (80) and Virender Sehwag (63) both scored half-centuries, Sachin Tendulkar made an unbeaten 111 while Dhoni scored 90 in 106.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Originally named Centurion Park, the stadium is has been hailed by many international captains as one boasting some of the best players' facilities in the world. Once the game starts, though, it has not a very hospitable place for visiting teams. The ground has hosted 28 Tests since its first against England in November 1995. South Africa have lost just three of those and three more have been drawn. India have won once here and incidentally, that was also the last Test played here between the two sides in December 2021.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Dean Elgar has played 84 Tests and scored 5146 runs at an average of 37.28. He has 13 centuries and 23 fifties. Elgar also played eight ODIs in his career and scored 104 runs in them.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: "The Cape Town Test will be my last. My favourite stadium in the world. A place I scored my first Test run against New Zealand and hopefully my last too," Dean Elgar had said in the days leading up to this series. The 36-year-old has been a stalwart in Test cricket for South Africa since he made his debut against Australia in November 2012.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been stalwarts for India in Test cricket but they are both out of the squad for this tour. Both players are fit and fine but this time, it does look like the team management have chosen to move on from them. It could be either Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill in Pujara's position while Shreyas Iyer or KL Rahul could be in Rahane's No. 5.

India vs South Africa Live Score, 1st Test: Dark clouds everywhere at the moment but they haven't started leaking yet. It remains nice and dry as of now but there are a full three hours to go for the match.

Brain Bloy, the curator at SuperSport Park, had spoken to reporters a couple of days ago and he had nothing good to say about the first two days. “You are seeing a forecast on Day 1 and Day 2. It doesn’t look very good. The sun is out for four days and, so there will be some purchases for spinners, offer turn and bounce; with the weather forecast, I don’t know how accurate it will be as there will be a lot of rain,” he said.