Two fiery yorkers from Jasprit Bumrah
knocked over Keshav Maharaj and Rassie van der Dussen’s stumps and helped India
assert control in the closing stages of the fourth day’s play in the ongoing
first Test against South Africa in Centurion on Wednesday. Proteas captain Dean Elgar led the hosts’ resistance with a patient fifty while wickets kept tumbling at the other end with India just six dismissals away from registering a famous win at the SuperSport Park on the fifth and final day tomorrow.

The day’s play started with first innings centurion KL Rahul and Shardul Thakur looking to add to India’s overnight score of 16/1. However, Rahul was unable to repeat his heroics in the second innings as he was dismissed by Lungi Ngidi for 23 soon after Kagiso Rabada removed Thakur (10). 

India’s experienced middle order trio of skipper Cheteshwar Pujara (16), Virat Kohli (18) and Ajinkya Rahane (20) also failed to make a significant contribution to the scoreboard. Kohli’s wait for a 71st international ton extended into a second consecutive year with the Indian skipper failing to reach three figures in any format since last notching a ton against Bangladesh in the Kolkata Test in 2019.  

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Rishabh Pant (34) was the top-scorer for the visitors and forged the highest partnership of the innings (35 runs) with Ravichandran Ashwin before the duo were removed by Rabada, who took his fourth wicket of the innings with the dismissal of Mohammed Shami (1).

Jansen completed India’s collapse by cleaning up Mohammed Siraj (0) as India set the hosts an imposing target of 305 runs to win. 

In reply, the Proteas lost opener Aiden Markram (1) in just the second over, with the 27-year-old playing on a delivery from Shami onto his stumps. 

Siraj then induced an edge to get rid of Keegan Petersen (17), while Elgar faced 122 deliveries to reach a gritty half-century. The South African captain hit seven boundaries en route to the milestone. 

However, Bumrah’s fiery spell towards the end of the day’s play removed van der Dussen (11) and nightwatchman Maharaj (8) to put India firmly in control of the first Test.