Rohit & Pujara's 2nd Innings Partnership Took The Game Away From Us: Faf du Plessis

Following up his century in the first innings, Rohit Sharma scored his 11th Test fifty on Day 4 to put India in a commanding position

Proteas ended up losing the first Test against India at Vizag by a heavy margin of 203 runs. Skipper Faf du Plessis admitted that Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara took the game away from them in India's second innings. "(India's) second innings was tough for us, Rohit and Pujara took the game away from us. I thought up until this morning, we competed pretty well on a good pitch," said Du Plessis in the post-match presentation ceremony. Following up his century in the first innings, Rohit Sharma scored his 11th Test fifty on Day 4 to put India in a commanding position. His partner Pujara shifted gears after a word from the dressing room and attained his fifty in 107 balls. The Proteas spinners failed to break their partnership as the duo continued to extend India's lead and bring up their 150-runs partnership. In reply to India's first innings total of 502, South Africa's Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock powered their side to an impressive 431. "Obviously India batted well, two great knocks by Mayank and Rohit. We fought well in our first innings with the bat. To get that sort of a total in the second innings of a game in India is tough," he said. South Africa, however, ended up falling to 191 all out on Day 5. "Day 5 if it starts misbehaving like that it's fine. That's part of Test cricket. The seamers were mostly doing a holding job in this game up until today. Shami bowled beautifully today. We got to improve on our spinners taking 4-5 wickets in the second innings," he said.