KL Rahul was dismissed by Marco Jansen© AFP
Despite India maintaining their lead on Day 2 of the ongoing third Test match against South Africa, the form of their openers remained a concern. KL Rahul was dismissed for the third time by Marco Jansen in the three-match red-ball series. In the final session on Wednesday, opener Rahul could only muster 10 runs off 22 balls before losing his wicket in the sixth over. Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was asked about the dismissal and he pointed out that the batter was “set-up” by Jansen and could not have done much “on a surface like this”.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “Yes, you could see that he was set-up. He was set-up by Jansen bowling across his body and then bouncing the odd one, then pitching it a lot further up which brought that little push into play and good catch there by Markram.”
In the fifth delivery of the sixth over, Rahul outside edged a full delivery by the pacer to second slip providing a catch to Aiden Markram, who made no mistake.
Gavaskar pointed out that it wasn’t Rahul’s fault and blamed the surface for his wicket.
“Again there is not much an opening batsman can do on a surface like this. He’s just going to hope that the bowlers get a little bit tired and don’t bowl on the stumps. Then maybe when they overpitch you, you try and score them”, he stated.
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After South Africa were bowled out for 210 in their first innings, India lost both their openers Rahul and Mayank Agarwal (7) cheaply.
The arrival of Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) and Virat Kohli (17*) bought some stability. They are currently unbeaten with India posting 57 for two at Stumps. The duo will resume batting on Day 3 with the visitors having a lead of 70 runs.
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