After two full days of cricket at Six Gun Grill Newlands, the match between the Proteas and India is amazingly still hanging in the balance. It was arguably a lot harder to bat today, with the pitch speeding up tremendously from yesterday.
Day 2 started horribly for South Africa. Paceman Jasprit Bumrah knocked over Aiden Markram with just the second delivery of the match.
Opportunities running out for Aiden
The 27-year old Markram is now under huge pressure to score some runs in the next innings. If he can’t, he could find himself dropped from the South African squad. The opener has only accumulated a measly 60-runs across his 5 innings batted. Even night-watchman, Keshav Maharaj has contributed 66-runs in 4 innings.
A bright future
The shining light for the South Africans has most definitely been Keegan Petersen. The man from Paarl has been playing beside himself and solidified his spot in the Test squad for the next series’ to come. It’s been an absolute joy watching him bat. He plays with confidence, maturity and pure class, raking in 194-runs this series.
The 28-year old Petersen is responsible for keeping South Africa in the game today. The rest of the Protea batters played themselves in but were unable to capitalize.
Ultimately the Proteas fell 13-runs short of India’s first innings total of 223.
Indias woes
India has meanwhile made it through 17-overs this evening in their second innings, but lost both their openers in quick succession. Kagiso Rabada first sent Mayank Agarwal packing for 7, while Marco Jansen got rid of KL Rahul 6-balls later after adding just 10 runs to the total.
The situation
At stumps, India are 57 for 2 (17), and lead the Proteas by 70 runs.
Cheteshwar Pujara – 9* (31)
Virat Kohli – 14* (39)
Marco Jansen – 1/7 (5)
For updates you missed during the first day of play, click here for lunch. Click here for the match situation after day 1.