After Kagiso Rabada's 5 five-wicket haul in the breezy conditions at SuperSport Park in Centurion, it was KL Rahul‘s gritty knock of 70* of 105 balls that propelled India to some sort of respectability with 208-8 at the end of Day 1.
During the match, there was an incident during the game where Marco Jansen, a left-arm fast-medium bowler from South Africa, tried sledging KL Rahul and appeared to be quite angry. On the other hand, KL Rahul, who was now on strike, responded to Jansen's hostility by giving a million-dollar smile, and as a consequence, his composed demeanour has won hearts on social media.
The incident took place just before the tea interval when KL Rahul defended a delivery of Jansen. His reaction has now been winning hearts online. India batsman Dinesh Karthik also heaped praises on the young sensational batter.
“KL Rahul's consistency during risky conditions underlines his class,” said Dinesh Karthik.
Similarly, Sunil Gavaskar heaped praises on KL and said, "Rahul’s 70 on Day 1 is as good as a century."
Apart from K L Rahul, Virat Kohli, (38), Shreyas Iyer (31) and Shardul Thakur (24) too added some invaluable runs on a pitch which had some variable bounce that assisted the pacers.
The projected 1st innings score in Centurion has been around 260. So, it will be imperative for India to add some more runs which will prove crucial as the pitch will start to deteriorate as the game progresses.
Worth mentioning, KL Rahul had scored a fluent 123 at Centurion in a winning cause when India toured South Africa in 2021-22.