Cape Town: Keegan Petersen’s stroke-filled, unbeaten 40 led South Africa’s charge on day two of the third Test against India at Newlands Cricket Ground here on Wednesday. At lunch, South Africa are 100/3 in 35 overs and trail India by 123 runs.
Jasprit Bumrah gave India the perfect start on the second ball of the day as Aiden Markram shouldered arms to a good length delivery coming in sharply from outside off and hit the top of off-stump.
Nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj looked fluent while striking boundaries off Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. He and Keegan Petersen managed to defy the Indian bowling attack to add 28 runs for the third wicket till Umesh Yadav downed Maharaj’s middle stump with a scrambled seam delivery going through the gate.
After drinks break, Petersen began to get a move on, slashing Shardul Thakur through covers before surviving an lbw appeal on the very next ball. Petersen was elegant in driving Yadav through point before punching through the same area in the pacer’s next over.
Petersen played the shot of the session, slashing Thakur over third man in the 28th over and then flicked off his delivery on pads through mid-wicket. Against Ravichandran Ashwin, Petersen brought out the reverse sweep to keep the run-flow going. He then signed off from the session by punching Bumrah through point, where Mayank Agarwal made contact with the boundary hoarding while sliding.
The fifty-run partnership between Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen came up in the final over before lunch. Then, van der Dussen flicked Shami on the final ball of the session through fine-leg to bring up South Africa’s hundred.
Brief scores: India 223 all out in 77.3 overs (Virat Kohli 79; Kagiso Rabada 4/73) vs South Africa 100/3 in 35 overs (Keegan Petersen 40 not out, Keshav Maharaj 25; Jasprit Bumrah 2/16), South Africa trail by 123 runs.
(IANS)
