R Ashwin foxes South Africa with four-wicket haul

For the second-straight Test match, R Ashwin troubled South Africa's batsmen by claiming four wickets to restrict them to a first-innings total of just 214 in Bangalore on Saturday.

India's captain, Virat Kohli, won the toss and opted to field first on a moist surface. It was only the 20th time in 246 Tests in India that a side had decided to field first, but Kohli's decision paid rich dividends.

Ashwin entered the fray in the eighth over of the match. His first delivery was short of a length and into the pads; and Dean Elgar took an easy single.

He corrected his line and length for the second delivery, and opened Stiaan van Zyl played a new-ball offbreak from Ashwin for the turn, and was trapped plumb lbw by the actual ball, which only straightened marginally.

Three-balls later, Faf du Plessis tried to flick Ashwin to get off the mark, but the dip deceived him and he only found Cheteshwar Pujara at short leg. Du Plessis' scores in the Tests now read 0, 1 and 0 after 62, 51, 60, 17 and 133 in the ODIs. South Africa stood at 15 for two at that stage.

Elgar and Hashim Amla then added 30 runs for the third wicket, before Varon Aaron breached Amla's defences for just seven. Captain AB de Villiers entered the fray and dropped anchor, but wickets kept tumbling at the other end.

Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Elgar, whereas Ashwin claimed JP Duminy, who tried to push the ball off the back foot through the covers, for 15. De Villiers and Dane Villas followed and that ended any hope of the tourists posting a sizeable first-innings total.

Ashwin added Morne Morkel's wicket to his tally to help India claim the advantage on the first day of the Test. Jadeja ended with impressive figures of four for 50 as well.

India's openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay, successfully negotiated South Africa's new-ball attack and added 80 runs before the close of play.