As it happened - South Africa vs India, 1st Test, 1st day

We leave you with a teaser from the final report for day one. Do join us tomorrow for more.

"With his fifth Test century outside Asia, KL Rahul led India to a position of dominance in the first Test of the series. On an uncharacteristically flat track, South Africa’s attack, for some reason missing Duanne Olivier, lacked the menace or the discipline to create indecision from the batters. A lot of the questions India’s batting had over them coming into the series were questions posed by extremely tough conditions they almost always play in. The moment they got a good batting pitch, they ended the day at 272 for 3.

Rahul and Agarwal – Boxing Day buddies from Bangalore – put together India’s first century opening stand in South Africa since 2010 before Rahul added two stands worth 82 each with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. South Africa managed to draw just the 60 false responses in the whole day. You expect at least one an over from a good attack on a decent Test surface."

With a square-drive, just a push really, off Keshav Maharaj, KL Rahul gets to his seventh Test hundred, having spent 12 overs in the 90s. This hasn't been the most fluent innings, but he has done what is required: leave well, don't get pushed back by short balls, drive the half-volleys, and have some luck.

Rahul is only the second India opener to score a century in South Africa. With five now, he moves past Virender Sehwag for most centuries outside Asia for an India opener. Only Sunil Gavaskar is ahead of him.

How much pressure is Ajinkya Rahane under? Shiva Jayaraman has looked for numbers. The last time a specialist India batter went into a Test averaging under 40 having played as many or more Tests than him was Dilip Vengsarkar at Headingley in 1986.

Two maidens, seven straight dots for Kohli, and then he takes the big risk and drives well away from the body. To hide the ball had been about the only way they were looking to get Kohli out, and he edges this through to slip. He nearly needs a ladder to reach this. India 199 for 3

The first threat since tea has been done away with. Kagiso Rabada's spell reads 4-0-20-0 as he puts in a big effort, asks questions with the short ball, but also bowls drive balls. On the other end, Keshav Maharaj provides no control. As a result, 42 runs in the nine overs since tea. It is cash-in time after doing the hard work. KL Rahul sniffing a hundred here. And dare I say Virat Kohli too even though he is just 35 right now.

Shiva Jayaraman digs into the numbers to provide this pertinent analysis. Here goes: "Cheteshwar Pujara’s collapsed back leg while defending on the front foot has often helped him keep his hands low on pitches that don’t offer much bounce, but it has also caused his downfall much too often in the recent past. The flip side of a collapsed leg is that he doesn’t get as close to the pitch of the ball as possible, which leaves both edges of his bat vulnerable as it happend in this innings. Footwork data recorded by ESPNcricinfo shows that front foot defence has indeed been an issue for Pujara: since the beginning of 2018, Pujara has been out defending on the front foot in 29 out of 65 Test innings. No batter in this period has been out defending on the front foot more often. Pujara gets dismissed every 40.3 balls playing the front-foot defence on an average, which is the fifth-lowest among 64 batters to have defended on the front foot at least 300 times in Tests since 2018. Now, one may argue that it is symptomatic of a batter woefully out of form, but consider Ajinkya Rahane in this aspect; Another India batter in dire need of runs. Rahane does almost twice as well as Pujara defending on the front foot with a dismissal rate of once in 79 balls on an average. For a measure of how good batters can be defending on the front foot – Kane Williamson, arguably the batter with the best defending technique at present, has been out defending on the front foot only twice out the 783 times he has attempted that shot – that’s once in every 391 balls. That’s nearly ten times as assured front-foot defending as Pujara."

They might have lost two wickets in two balls between lunch and tea, but that remains the only damage done. At 157 for 2, India still stay well ahead in this game. KL Rahul had the odd good fortune but you need that at Test level, and Virat Kohli has looked good. Just the 18 false responses induced in 29 overs in this session, which makes it 40 in 57 overs overall. Expect Rabada to steam in for for a short burst after tea

First a DRS review that left both Marais Erasmus and Mayank Agarwal shocked. The ball seamed in a long way, and looked like missing both on height and line. Lungi Ngidi and Dean Elgar still challenged the not-out call, and on the first few replays neither the batter nor the umpire looked concerned. It took an age to build the ball-tracking, and it eventually showed that more than half the ball was hitting the top of the leg stump. Agarwal kept shaking his head all the way back.

And when Cheteshwar Pujara walked in, it suddenly looked like South Africa had a plan in place. A backward short leg, a short square leg, and the first ball seamed in to take a thick inside edge onto the thigh pad and lob up for an easy catch. India 117 for 2.

You expect teams to start a session with two bowlers likeliest to take a wicket. Kagiso Rabada is definitely one of the them, drawing mistakes with uneven bounce, but Marco Jansen has eased the pressure with half-volleys from the other end. India are past 100 without a wicket lost, only their third such opening stand in South Africa. India 101 for 0 in 35 overs.

This is the first time India have put on a 50-or-more opening stand in South Africa since 2010, and they look good for more. Mayank Agarwal has gone quicker, but he has also got more loose balls. KL Rahul has taken his time, but on this flat pitch and against this bowling, it will be difficult to contain him after a while. Just the 22 false responses in 28 overs on the first morning of a Test is not good enough. The pitch is flat, but the bowling has lacked sting and control too. India 83 for 0, Agarwal 46 off 84, Rahul 29 off 84.

And it is not just the score of 42 for 0. The bowlers have been unable to draw any uncertainty from the openers. In 14 overs, they have produced nine false shots, which is partly a function of the flat pitch and partly that of lack of control in the bowling. They have bowled all kinds of lengths in the first hour. Apart from Kagiso Rabada, the other three have not looked threatening at all.

Marco Jansen's first over in Test cricket. Freebies on the pads with no swing

Half an hour done, and South Africa have barely produced a chance. In fact they have gone past the bat just four times in the first seven overs, which is rare for a fresh Test pitch in South Africa. India have been watchful in reaching 11 for 0.

Also, as expected, the pitch is slow on day one because there has been a fair bit of rain and clouds in the lead-up. Hardly any seam movement, though.

Apart from being South Africa's Test cricketer No. 350, that is. Let Firdose Moonda tell you

"Kohli is the reason Marco Jansen got his first big break. The India Test captain was impressed with the young bowler in the Johannesburg nets three years ago, which may have led to his name doing the rounds in India, and an IPL deal earlier this year. Jansen only played two matches in the tournament and has limited first-class experience, with only 19 caps, but in the absence of Anrich Nortje, and bowler-friendly conditions, South Africa may choose to unleash him. At close to seven feet tall, Jansen is expected to be the bearer of many bouncers, and will likely be tasked with making the visiting batters feel as uncomfortable as possible.

Recent form: Jansen is 16th on the first-class wickets chart for this season, with ten wickets at 12.30. He was the fifth leading bowler in the series between South Africa A and India A, with six wickets at 31.83."

Big news from the toss. India have picked five specialist batters, and Ajinkya Rahane is one of them. Unlike the last tour where India surprised observers by dropping Rahane in the first Test, they have retained him, and perhaps still managed to surprise observers. The bowling attack is three fast bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, a spinner in R Ashwin and a hedge-the-bets "allrounder" in Shardul Thakur.

South Africa are starting without Duane Olivier. Marco Jansen gets a debut to partner Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder in the pace attack. Keshav Maharaj plays, which tells you this pitch might have something for the spinners as the Test ages.

India, as they have preferred to do in the past, choose the tough ask of batting on a fresh pitch over batting last.

India 1 MA Agarwal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 CA Pujara, 4 V Kohli*, 5 AM Rahane, 6 RR Pant†, 7 R Ashwin, 8 SN Thakur, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 JJ Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj

South Africa 1 D Elgar*, 2 AK Markram, 3 KD Petersen, 4 HE van der Dussen, 5 T Bavuma, 6 Q de Kock†, 7 PWA Mulder, 8 M Jansen, 9 KA Maharaj, 10 K Rabada, 11 L Ngidi

With so much talent at their disposal, India's Test selections have become a matter of fierce debate. It is no different right now. Do they play five batters or six? Which one or two do they choose from the three available for Nos 5 and 6? Ishant or Siraj? Have your say right here