Promising young batsmen Keegan Pietersen and Rassie van der Dussen looked confident in their unbroken 55-run stand for the fourth wicket as South Africa scored 100 for three by lunch on the second day of the third and final Test against India.
Jasprit Bumrah (11-4-16-2) and Umesh Yadav (7-1-29-1) bowled two top deliveries to dismiss opener Aiden Markram (8) and night-watchman Keshav Maharaj (25) but Pietersen (40 batting) and van der Dussen (17 batting) held the fort with great confidence despite a morning session of testing pace bowling from the Indian line-up.
For skipper Virat Kohli, quick wickets are the need of the hour as he will not be able to secure a huge first innings lead while defending a lowly score of 223 in the first innings.
A couple of times Shardul Thakur (6-1-21-0) found the outside edge of Pietersen’s bat, but on both occasions the ball fell in front of skipper Kohli at first slip.
The buoyancy available on the Newlands track is not as fast as it was in the Centurion and Wanderers belonging to the Highveld region.
Perhaps, standing a few yards ahead would have been an ideal decision, especially for someone like Shardul who is only moderately slippery.
The morning started on a bright note for India as Markram got a beauty from Bumrah, who got him far enough back to hoodwink and clip the off-stump when the batsman thought it would have gone straight.
Maharaj did a great job on his part and played in the first 45 minutes before Umesh bowled a classical inswinger to dislodge the middle stump.
Pietersen, however, kept his positive intent as he hit seven fours in his 86-ball knock, while van der Dussen was set to play the waiting game in contrast to his second innings performance at Wanderers.
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