Johannesburg, Jan 4 Shardul Thakur's maiden five-wicket haul (5/43) in Test cricket helped India reduce South Africa to 191-7 at Tea on Day 2 of the second Test match at The Wanderers Stadium, here on Tuesday.
Resuming the play from 102/4 post-lunch, South Africa added 89 runs and lost three wickets in the second session of Day 2, still trailing India by 11 runs.
After making a strong comeback before lunch, India were looking for a few more quick wickets but Temba Bavuma and Kyle Verreynne put on a useful partnership to keep the Indian bowlers at bay. They hit boundaries and also rotated the strike well to bring up an important 5th wicket partnership for the hosts.
It was again Shardul Thakur, who struck to end the promising stand. Verreynne (21) was trapped on the crease to an incoming delivery from Thakur. The batter went for the review after being given out leg-before but it was three reds, thus ending the 60-run fifth-wicket stand.
However, Bavuma (51) continued batting in the same manner and reached his 17th Test fifty with a streaky four off Thakur. But he couldn't carry his innings longer and got out in the very next ball as Thakur bagged his maiden Test fifer.
Kagiso Rabada, who came to bat next, didn't trouble the scorers and was dismissed by Shami for naught. However, Keshav Maharaj (11 not out) and Marco Jansen (2 not out) denied India any wicket further till Tea.
Brief scores: India 202 all out in 63.1 overs (KL Rahul 50, Ravichandran Ashwin 46; Marco Jansen 4/31, Kagiso Rabada 3/64) vs South Africa 191-7 in 70 overs (Keegan Petersen 62, Temba Bavuma 51; Shardul Thakur 5/43 Mohammed Shami 2/52).
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