Ind vs SA, 2nd Test: India Ends Day 2 With 50-Plus Lead After Shardul Thakur Picks Up 7-Fer

In the first session, Shardul Thakur broke a 72-run solid partnership between Elgar and Petersen and then broke 60-run stand between Bavuma and Verreynne, taking wickets of all four Proteas batters.

Shardul Thakur celebrates at Johannesburg after taking a wicket, Pic Courtesy: @ddsportschannel / twitter

New Delhi: Senior batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, playing for their careers, stitched an important 40-plus stand for the third wicket to help India end Day 2 with a 50-plus lead against South Africa. At Stumps, India lead Proteas by 58 runs. 

Earlier, star all-rounder Shardul Thakur (7/61), an absolute asset to the Indian cricket team, picked a seven-wicket haul to stun the hosts South Africa, restricting them to 229 on Day 2 of Ind vs SA 2nd Test in The Wanderers stadium, Johannesburg. South Africa lead India by 27 runs after end of their first innings. Batting first after winning the toss, India were bowled out for a paltry 202.

South Africa were in control right from the start of Day's play. At one time, the hosts were 88 runs for loss of one wicket. Indian bowlers were failing to create real chances, until Shardul returned for another spell and struck with his Golden arm to pull India back into the game.

In the first session, Shardul broke a 72-run solid partnership between Elgar and Petersen and then broke the 60 run stand between Bavuma and Verreynne, taking wickets of all these four Proteas batters.

Shardul pushed the hosts on the backfoot by taking 3 wickets without giving any runs off 18 balls, just before Lunch on Day 2.

At lunch, South Africa had reached 102/4. Shardul continued his solid performance even after the lunch break and took another two wickets to attain his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

At Tea break, the hosts trailed India by 11 runs with just three wickets remaining

South Africa XI: PlayingDean Elgar (c), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi

India XI: KL Rahul (c), Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj