Cricket-Agarwal's maiden ton after Rohit heroics flatten South Africa
- Country:
- India
Mayank Agarwal completed a maiden test hundred following Rohit Sharma's authoritative century as the India openers put South Africa's bowlers on the mat in the opening match of the three-test series at Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Rohit was out after a potentially career-defining 176 in his first innings as a test opener with the hosts, 324 for one at lunch on the second day, firmly on a course of a big first-innings total.
Agarwal, playing only his fifth Test, was unbeaten on 138 with the dependable number three batsman Cheteshwar Pujara six not out at the interval. Starting the day on 202 without loss, India's openers treated South Africa's bowlers with the same disdain they showed on the rain-interrupted opening day on Wednesday.
Visiting captain Faf du Plessis packed his fielders on one side of the wicket but both Rohit and Agarwal scored almost at will, negating the spinners by often employing both versions of the sweep shots - conventional and reverse. South Africa, who lost their previous series at home to Sri Lanka 2-0, looked desperately short of ideas in the face of the batting onslaught.
Rohit and Agarwal, opening the batting for India together for the first time, stitched together a stand of 317 - a record for any wicket for India against South Africa. The only player in the world with three double hundreds in one-day internationals, Rohit appeared set for his first in the longest format but was out stumped to South Africa spin spearhead Keshav Maharaj.
Dropped on 126 by Quinton de Kock off seamer Vernon Philander, Rohit hit Maharaj for his sixth six and followed it up with a four but the left-arm spinner spun the next one past his forward defense for the wicketkeeper to whip the bails off. Agarwal, who had a previous best Test score of 77, and Pujara ensured there was no further damage after the touring side took the second new ball.
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(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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