Virat Kohli walked up to his South African counterpart with an ear-to-ear smile. “Welcome to South Africa, Virat,” du Plessis reciprocated with firm shake of hands. Two of the finest modern day batters were present at the trophy unveiling of the three-Test series. About 45 hours later, Cape Town and the world saw a completely different picture with the Indian captain giving a rather animated send-off to du Plessis.
It was not very difficult to decipher the reason behind Kohli’s actions. The ‘umpire’s call’ ally of the Decision Review System had just given du Plessis a life and the South African dressing room, a lot to cheer and giggle. The very next delivery, Pandya found the edge of du Plessis’ bat with a far less threatening delivery, Saha accepted the gift with both hands and Kohli at second slip, found an oasis in desert.
He ran towards du Plessis, both his fists thumping, accompanied by loud screams, stopped for a nanosecond, changed direction towards his teammates, roared some more. South Africa were five down for 140 and India had again managed to get a hold of the steering of first Test after de Villiers and du Plessis had just pushed them off the comfortable seat for a brief period.
Harsha Bhogle in the commentary box summed it up aptly, “This is something the South Africans may be witnessing for the first time, this is Kohli, always wearing his heart on his sleeve.”
The DRS not going India’s way or the giggles in the hosts' change room afterwards were only catalysts to the du Plessis send-off. The foundation was actually laid by Faf himself.
On the eve of the first Test, du Plessis talked about settling scores with India.
"I don't know when the next Test series against India is, but it's probably the last time all of us (senior players) play against India and there's no better way than playing a series in South Africa. We were disappointed the last time we went there and we've got a score to settle, so we're excited for this series," he said.
South Africa however, decided not to drag matters further as there was no running after Kohli or howls after Morkel removed him with a delivery that climbed off length at the stroke of stumps.