IND vs SA 1st Test, Day 1 Highlights: Rabada 5-fer gives Proteas upper hand

India vs South Africa 1st Test, Day 1 Highlights: Only 59 overs of play was possible on the first day as Kagiso Rabada took a five-wicket haul and KL Rahul hit fifty as India remained 208/8

1:32 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Pitch report of the first day

 

In the official pitch report, Shaun Pollock and Ravi Shastri said that there is a good covering of the grass and teams tend to bat first here after winning the toss because as the Test progresses, there might be a bit of up-and-down movement which could be tricky to handle. 

 

They further elaborated that batting will get difficult as the Test progresses and that the Proteas would be tempted to go without a spinner given the overcast weather conditions. Their final judgement was that the pitch won’t change too much. 

 

1:19 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Getting brighter at Centurion

1:11 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: What has happened so far?

12:49 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Head-to-head between two teams

12:45 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Toss delayed

12:38 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Not raining but overcast at the moment

12:35 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: How will the pitch behave today?

 

The pitch in Centurion will be true to its nature with a hard surface provisioning lots of pace and bounce to the bowlers. Here’s what the chief curator Brayan Bloy had to say about it. 

 

“Our goal is to maintain the characteristics and not do anything out of the ordinary. I want it to be a typical hard wicket, as per Centurion’s conditions. The wicket is quite green. With two more days of hot weather and more rolling, it should lose a bit more colour, but I am happy with the thin, even coverage of grass. It looks good,” said Bloy in chat withy PTI. 

 

Read the full pitch report here

India vs South Africa, 1st Test pitch and weather report. Photo: X

12:30 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: What could be the playing 11 of both sides?

 

India Playing 11 probables

 

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna/Mukesh Kumar.

 

South Africa Playing 11 probables

 

Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma (C), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Tony de Zorzi, Kyle Verreynne (WK), Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee, Nandre Burger.

 

12:28 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Squad of both the teams

 

India squad for 1st Test

Rohit Sharma (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk).

 

South Africa squad for 1st Test

Temba Bavuma (captain), Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Dean Elgar, Keegan Petersen, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Tristan Stubbs (wk), Nandre Burger, Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, David Bedingham.

 

12:24 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: How will the weather play

12:19 PM

India vs South Africa Live | 1st Test Day 1: Match preview

 

After grinding it out in the T20Is and ODIs, where India won three matches out of five, it is time to head into the real test which comes with red-ball cricket. 

Here’s the preview of the first game between the two teams at Centurion. 

Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna. Photo: PTI

12:12 PM

India vs South Africa Live Score | 1st Test Day 1: Welcome to the live coverage

 

Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the first day of the first Test, also called the Boxing Day Test between India and South Africa, which will be played at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Stay tuned to Business Standard for further updates.