On the second day of the first test match with South Africa in Visakhapatnam the first blood was drawn by Ravichandran Ashwin as South African opening batsman Aiden Markram was dismissed in the third session.
He was introduced by captain Virat Kohli as the first-change of bowler in the fourth over, Ashwin almost had Markram over himself in his first over. While that ball bounced a little bit and went over the stumps and he almost had Markam at that moment.
Ashwin succeeded in passing through Markram on the first ball of the over as he fooled the batsman by his magical delivery. Markram had opened the innings with Dean Elgar, with the help of one four, and ended up scoring 5 runs in 21 balls.
As last played by Ashwin for India in last year’s Australia tour, he was delighted to pick up his first wicket in the third over itself. Getting off to a brilliant start was crucial for the 33-year-old bowler.
The hosts posted a superb 502/7 dec. in 136 overs after India’s captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat. In Mayank Agarwal (215) and Rohit Sharma (176), the opening batsmen had stitched a 317run partner-ship to give their team a great start. Maharaj was the pick of South African bowlers with bowling figures of 55-6- 189-3.
