Virat Kohli was at his fluent best as he stroked his way to an unbeaten 84 guiding India to 164 for four at tea, against South Africa on the first day of the first cricket Test here today.
Kohli struck 14 boundaries in his 113 ball innings as Indians scored 94 runs in the second session losing two more wickets in Cheteshwar Pujara (25) and Rohit Sharma (14).
Kohli has another youngstar Ajinkya Rahane (12 batting) for company, who started on a positive note hitting three boundaries in the nine deliveries that he faced.
The talented Delhi batsmen looked assured in his strokeplay as he hit boundaries all around the wicket including some cracking pull-shots of the fiery Dale Steyn.
Kohli along with Pujara added 89 runs for the third wicket before a mix-up resulted in the Saurashtra batsman being run-out. Rohit didn't look fluent during his stay at the wicket and was dismissed trying to drive an outswinger from Vernon Philander.
For South Africa, Steyn (1/36), Philander (1/38) and Morkel (1/18) shared the wickets apart from the run-out.
In the post-lunch session, both Kohli and Pujara showed great skill playing the fast bowling on merit. They appeared confident in leaving the ball and when opportunity presented itself, they scored runs as well. They brought up their 50-run partnership in the 30th over.
Steyn toiled hard for a wicket, but his ploy of mixing short deliveries with full ones was foiled. Morkel, who had troubled the openers in the first session, too couldn't do much in the second one, even though he bowled economically. Kallis bowled 8 overs without reward as well.
Kohli was the more attacking of the two, putting aside leg-spinner Imran Tahir for special treatment. He hit 23 runs off 18 balls faced from Tahir, inclusive of five boundaries, three of which came after lunch -- all hit through deep mid-wicket region.
Tahir gave away 37 runs in six overs. Kohli brought up his eighth half-century in Test cricket off 76 deliveries with nine boundaries.
