SA vs IND 2018, 2nd Test: It Was a Great Gesture and it Meant a Lot - Markram on Virat Kohli

South African captain Faf du Plessis elected to bat first after winning the toss in Centurion, as Lungisan Ngidi made his debut for South Africa.

He replaced injured Dale Steyn who is ruled out of series with a bruised heel. South Africa posted 269 runs for the loss of six wickets at the end of first day’s play with young opener Aiden Markram missing his third Test century by just six runs.

Young Markram was in all praise for Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin after the first day’s play. Kohli gave Markram a short send-off, as the latter made his way back to the dressing room.

“Well played, you were unlucky to get out.’ It was a great touch from him. He is a massive competitor as everyone sees on the TV, but it’s great to see that he has got good values that people off the field might not see. It was a great gesture, and it meant a lot,” Markram said at the press conference.

Ashwin gave India the first breakthrough post lunch, as he removed Dean Elgar thus breaking an 85-run partnership. Markram admitted the South Africans were surprised by the amount of assistance that Ashwin got from the pitch.

“We didn’t expect there to be so much assistance for him. Ashwin was difficult to face. He is difficult to face on a flat wicket as well, so it did work out well for him I suppose,” Markram added.

“He still had to bowl well, so you need to give him some credit. It will be interesting to see if the pitch will get harder and if it will continue to spin like it did, or if it spun like that because of the grass covering. We’ll see in the next couple of days,” Markram stated.

Markram also admitted playing Ashwin, who had three wickets besides his name was a welcome challenge. Markram also revealed the Proteas would have liked not to lose the number of wickets they did in the final session of the day.

“We would have liked not to have lost those clump of wickets at the end. It is a part of the game, and we just got to be nice and positive as a side and fight for every run tomorrow morning,” he said

Markram also stated his disappointment over missing out on another century.

“Obviously, I am bitterly disappointed. It’s the second time in a short career, but I’m just going to keep saying it’s part of the game and try to be positive. Next time I get into those situations I’ll take lessons from what I’ve learned today and hopefully get through to three figures,” Markram signed off.

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