After being dismissed in the Boxing Day Test, Virat Kohli does not respond to Kagiso Rabada’s explosive shot

On the opening day of the first Test match in Centurion on Tuesday, South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada dismissed star batsman Virat Kohli of the Indian cricket team, but Kohli was unable to build on his early success. After Tony De Zorzi missed a catch off Nandre Burger’s ball, Kohli survived an early opportunity. However, just as India supporters were expecting another half-century from Kohli, he was caught off guard by a ripper from Rabada.

While Kohli attempted to play the ball with some hands, the delivery pitched beyond the off-stump and kept him in line. In the end, wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne made an easy catch as he edged it behind the wickets. When the umpire raised his finger to signal the dismissal, a very dejected Kohli rehearsed the hit on his own, perhaps trying to correct his error.

On the opening morning of the first Test match between South Africa and India in Centurion on Tuesday, the former team took three early wickets but failed to seize two potentially significant opportunities.

After being set to bat, India were 91 for three at lunch, with Nandre Burger making an instant impression with two wickets taken on his Test debut.

After the visitors were down to 24 for three, Virat Kohli (33 not out) and Shreyas Iyer (31 not out) put up an undefeated 67 for the fourth wicket.

On four, they both may have been fired.

Marco Jansen removed Iyer from the game after he hit Kagiso Rabada to backward point.

Tony de Zorzi dismissed Kohli when he flicked Burger to midwicket in the subsequent over.

Captain Temba Bavuma’s departure from the pitch due to what seemed to be a recurrence of his hamstring injury sustained at last month’s World Cup dealt South Africa yet another blow.

Due to wet spots on a surface that had been blanketed by rain for 40 hours prior to Tuesday morning, the start started 30 minutes later than scheduled.

Bavuma’s choice to bowl first seemed to have paid off when three wickets fell in the opening hour of play on a pitch where inconsistent bounce has been a role in the closing stages of past contests.

Rabada caught Indian skipper Rohit Sharma at long leg for five runs. Burger then scored twice, with Shubman Gill scoring two and Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring 17 respectively.