Pacer Shardul Thakur's triple blow brought the visitors back in the game as visitors got off to a steady start at lunch on day-2 of the second Test match here at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.
Resuming the day at 35 for 1 captain Dean Elgar and Keegan Petersen started steadily to take team's total beyond the 50-run mark. Petersen was more aggressive of the two as Elgar kept one end tight.
The duo of Elgar and Petersen reached half-century partnership for the second wicket as pacers Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj failed to take a wicket in the early hours. With pacers failing to take wicket captain KL Rahul introduced Ravichandran Ashwin and he too failed to give India the breakthrough.
Shardul Thakur was then introduced into the attack and he finally gave India the breakthrough as dismissing Captain Elgar for 28 caught behind by wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant. Keegan Petersen did not get too bothered by losing his partner as he notched up his half-century.
Petersen kept on capitalizing on the scoring opportunities taking his team's total to triple figure mark. Shami and Pant appealed for a caught behind for Rassie van der Dussen and the umpire gave him out but the decision was turned down by DRS.
Shardul gave India their second breakthrough of the day as he got the prized scalp of Keegan Petersen caught in the slips by Mayank Agarwal of a thick edge for 62. Thakur was not going to stop there as he dismissed van der Dussen for just 1 caught behind by keeper Pant as the Proteas went to lunch with scores of 102/4 trailing India by exactly 100 runs.
Brief Scores: SA 102/4 (Keegan Petersen 62, Dean Elgar 28, Temba Bavuma 0*; Shardul Thakur 3/8) vs India 202/10 (KL Rahul 50, Ravichandran Ashwin 46; Marco Jansen 4/31)
( With inputs from ANI )
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