South Africa V India, 3rd Test, Day 3 Lunch Review: Pitch Starts Misbehaving, Match in the Balance

It was a fascinating display of proceedings on the morning session of the 3rd day of the 3rd and the final Test between India and South Africa and after the lunch session, we might be in for abandonment due to poor pitch conditions. India began the day on 49/1, leading South Africa by 42 runs. The visitors lost KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara pretty cheaply, but it was skipper Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay who applied themselves brilliantly on a difficult pitch and stitched together a valuable partnership between them.

Rahul will be an angry man as he poked at a delivery outside the off stump and ended up giving a simple catch to the slip fielder. Cheteshwar Pujara, on the other hand, received an unplayable delivery from Morne Morkel as the ball took off from length area and struck his gloves. Faf du Plessis in the slip cordon completed an easy catch.

Kohli and Vijay batted out the most difficult part as they got struck on the gloves on a couple of occasions. There were a few deliveries which rose from the length and got smashed on to their hands. There was a discussion between the umpires whether to continue the match or not but as of now the match is in progress. Kohli, on the other hand, has made full use of the opportunities he has got to score and smashed some exceptional boundaries.

Vijay was eventually dismissed after grinding for a long time. Kagiso Rabada bowled a terrific yorker and castled Vijay who has batted since yesterday.

Brief Scores

India 1st innings 187 all-out (Virat Kohli 54, Cheteshwar Pujara 50, Kagiso Rabada 3/39)

South Africa 1st innings 194 all-out (Hashim Amla 61, Jasprit Bumrah 5/54, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/44)

India 2nd innings 100/4 (Virat Kohli 27*, Vernon Philander 2/21)

India lead by 93 runs