As it happened - South Africa vs India, 3rd men's Test, Cape Town, 1st day

So seven wickets fall in that final session of play and ends a dramatic first day at Cape Town.

India would be disappointed that they've only got 233 on the board, but they're not out of the game yet, especially given that they were able to remove Dean Elgar before stumps.

Virat Kohli was magnificent. Kagiso Rabada was ruthless. And this is just the start.

So make sure you join us for the second day's play because it's gonna be another doozy.

For now, here's a snipped of the report.

He kept probing away and probing away. Targeting Dean Elgar's outside edge with the angle of the ball moving across the left-hander. It didn't quite work in Johannesburg. But here, everything comes up Bumrah as he lifts India on a day where they've shown a lot of toughness.

In walks the nightwatchman. Another wicket could really put the cat among the pigeons.

Virat Kohli contributed 34% of India's total. His 79 at Cape Town was a masterclass of defensive batting in tough conditions. He lasted 201 deliveries. Only two of his team-mates could bat even 25% of that.

It was one man show for South Africa too, Kagiso Rabada bowling with a ruthlessness that makes the whole world fall in love with fast bowling. His first spell, in tandem with Duanne Olivier, produced one false shot every four balls. His third spell, which pitted him against Kohli, was the most riveting passage of play today.

Four wickets in 22 relentless overs was just reward for a man who was on top of his game.

The unstoppable force gets the immovable object.

Though we've already established that Virat Kohli has changed track. He was running out of partners. He knew he needed quick runs. So he took a lot more risk and this time, the push away from the body, results in an edge that is taken by the keeper.

India 211 for 9 now.

With the tail now exposed, Virat Kohli's game has changed.

An innings that was built on restraint - on his conviction to leave the ball outside off stump - has turned into something else.

He's 73 off 190. And he's chasing now. He's in one-day mode. He's driving on the up. And away from the body. The runs he can get now outweigh the risk that comes with those shots. A total in the region of 250 can still be competitive here.

Meanwhile, Rabada produces a jaffa to take down Jasprit Bumrah. Back of a length, rearing up at the No. 9, taking his gloves and through to second slip. India 210 for 8.

He has risen above the chaos at the other end.

Chaos that refuses to stop as Rishabh Pant falls to one that rears up at him, cramping him as he looks to cut. Marco Jansen, the 6'8" fast bowler, has a second wicket

R Ashwin falls to the left-armer too. Feathering a catch to the keeper. 175 for 6.

It's Kohli or bust for India in Cape Town.

Rishabh Pant has always been in focus. He's a non-stop chatterbox behind the wicket and a hair-raising shot-maker in front of it. The one thing he doesn't do is restraint. But that's exactly what the situation calls for in Cape Town.

His rush of blood in the last Test - a sentence that may well dog him all through his career, such is the way he plays - hastened India's defeat.

He's walked into this one with everything in the balance. And so far, he's shown the conviction to not give anything away.

He faced Rabada when he was brand new at the crease - an experience that can best be described as gruesome - and has survived. There was even a moment when he looked exactly like Neo from the Matrix as he bent backwards to avoid a bouncer that would have smashed into his nose.

India 141 for 4 at tea.

Shiva Jayaraman, senior stats analyst: Even as South Africa continue to chip away, Virat Kohli’s innings has been of utmost restraint seen of any batter in Test cricket in recent years.

South Africa pacers tested him with 68 balls outside off out of the first 100 balls they bowled at him in this innings. Kohli left alone 44 of those balls.

All three of Kohli’s fours – including his first scoring runs in this innings - have come from the cover drive, but the India captain has chosen his deliveries to play his go-to shot. Those three boundaries are the only cover drives he attempted in the first 100 balls of this innings.

He has been on fire emoji

Rabada was fired the up in the last Test. And that's turned a super athlete into the kind of many headed monster that dominates Greek mythology. So imagine being a simple mortal and running into him on a cricket field.

Imagine that when you're completely out of form and playing for your place in the team. Ajinkya Rahane just had no chance.

All through this game, Rabada has bowled like a dream and Cape Town has been completely in his thrall. The clouds hang low over Table mountain. An omen of doom hanging over every single batter making his way out to the middle. In these conditions, even a 42 over old ball swings like a brand new one. And with Rabada bowling 140-plus, the darn thing is like a fast legbreak.

Rahane sees it angled into him, on a good length, so he prepares to play a flick, the kind of shot he's played all his life, some of them with his eyes closed. But here, as soon a the ball pitches, it nips away and snags the edge. #Unplayable

You generally want your best bowler running at Virat Kohli when he's new at the crease. England had James Anderson. Australia had Pat Cummins. South Africa have Kagiso Rabada. Except when Kohli came out to bat today, Rabada was at the end of a long first spell.

So we had to wait.

Now, given the game has just restarted after a break, and India have lost a wicket to boot, it's almost like Kohli is new to the crease again. Rabada and South Africa will be desperate to exploit this. Batters of this quality give you very few chances. If you don't take em, those same chances only serve to tighten up an already top-class game.

Either way, this should be a spectacle. So stay glued to those seats.

Marco Jansen strikes. Brilliant stuff.

He's been there or thereabouts all innings, but the left-arm angle from over the wicket coupled with the true bounce on offer in Cape Town had enabled India to leave him quite comfortable.

So what does he do? He switches around the wicket.

That forces a change in tactics. Pujara now knows his stumps are in danger. That he needs to play more than he can leave. And it is one such ball - pitched up on off stump - that draws the batter forward and into a mistake. All it took was the ball straightening like half an inch - maybe even less than that - and the edge is taken

Two balls later, the under-pressure Ajinkya Rahane finds himself in trouble too, lunging at a fuller delivery outside off and nicking it past the right of third slip.

Six balls later, Kagiso Rabada has Virat Kohli in two minds. The India captain initially tries to defend a ball in the off stump corridor and, at later than last minute, does a 180 and tries to yank the bat away. In the end, the ball glances off the open face and dribbles away to the cordon.

From looking completely at ease, India are back in a fight. Good on Dean Elgar. Once the third-wicket partnership was broken, he spotted an opportunity to crank up the pressure on the opposition and immediately turned to his best bowler. KG Rabada.

South Africa have resumed well after lunch. Just six runs off the first five overs. And it appears they are targeting Virat Kohli in a different way. With the short ball. Duanne Olivier is an excellent exponent of that. Ruined Pakistan on Boxing Day in 2018, just before he left as a Kolpak player.

This is also a function of the way South Africa have bowled at him in this series. He tends to defend with hands rather low and with these being bouncy conditions, that opens him up to being caught bat-pad. It happened the very first time he went out to bat on this tour and ever since then he's had to deal with that challenge. So far, in Cape Town, Pujara has done well, and benefited too, from the errors that come with this line of attack. A pull to a short ball that didn't rise enough and a flick to a ball way down leg has helped bulk up his score.

For all the noise around Cheteshwar Pujara - his awkwardness at the crease, his slow strike rates, his preference for defence over attack - India couldn't have asked for a better player to guide them through this very tough morning's play.

This man is predisposed to batting. Just batting. You know how people say if you string a few dot balls, you get a wicket. Well, that doesn't work with Pujara because he doesn't mind not scoring. One he took about 50 balls to even get off the mark.

To him, none of the noise matters. To him, only the task at hand is real. And the task at hand is helping India out of trouble and into a position where they can dictate terms.

Virat Kohli doesn't have to deal with so much noise. He's the golden boy. The only time the knives come out is when he starts fishing outside the off stump. And in this innings he's made a conscious attempt to leave the ball.

That change in mindset has come alongside a change in technique, which again Sunil Gavaskar was quick to spot on the broadcast. The former India captain said of the current India captain that his front foot was now moving down the pitch in a straighter line. In Centurion, because he was looking to play at balls moving across him, he kept planting his front foot across the stumps to try and get close to deliveries that he had no business getting close to.

Here, Kohli is determined to make South Africa's bowlers come at him. To suck them into targeting his strength, which is playing balls in and around off stump. He's one of those rare batters who can flick a ball in the corridor through midwicket and look completely at ease. If he can stay in this mood, India will come out of this innings with plenty to play for.

India were mis-hitting one in four balls when these two came together. Look at their control percentages now.

South Africa's change bowlers too are keeping the pressure up. Lungi Ngidi and Marco Janson strung together 20 dot balls between the 15th and the 19th overs.

The only thing is, they didn't quite threaten a wicket the way Rabada and Olivier did, potentially because the two new-ball bowlers today hit the pitch harder and they rarely veered off the top of off stump.

Ngidi and Janson are offering easier leaves for Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. They're still very capable, but it does appear that they are easier to bat against on this excellent Cape Town pitch. Remember, it's going to get quicker. The movement it's offering is just right and should continue for all five days. So India's bowlers too can look forward to that red ball taking the edge instead of just whooshing past it. All of that means a total in the region of 200-250 can still prove competitive.

No sooner does the camera pan to Virat Kohli in the dressing room - fully kitted up, including the helmet - and practicing a rasping cut shot, which in his mind raced away to the boundary, does he have to hurry on up and make his way to the middle!

Because South Africa have another.

And it's deeply deserved.

Rabada in the wickets now. The third time he's created a genuine chance in a seven-over first spell. A full ball on a fourth stump line draws Agarwal forward. The same Agarwal who plays with such hard hands. The same technique that leaves him open to the most common type of dismissal in Test cricket. Caught behind. Text book KO.

The 16th shot that India weren't in control of brings the wicket.

That's 16 out of 68 deliveries this morning. A rate of one in four balls.

That's how difficult it is out there.

And KL Rahul, as good as he's become, commits a fatal mistake when he pushes - he doesn't push anymore - but here he pushes at a short ball straightening off the seam outside off and that takes the edge through to the keeper

It takes a high quality batter to survive this spell of fast bowling from South Africa and KL Rahul in particular is showing just how good he's gotten.

At one time, he used to appear so confused at the crease, vulnerable to losing his stumps and to nicking off. But that low is the reason he's now risen so high.

It prompted him to take a long, hard look at his Test-match game and he concluded that his judgment needed some work; needed to be stronger. What balls to play, what balls to leave. What to hit hard, What to hit soft.

Rahul has tightened up his defensive game to the point that he's started to enjoy the struggle inherent in Test cricket. India are fortunate to have him out there dealing with this burst

Mayank Agarwal is a different kind of player. He's not been hurt by the game as Rahul has. Yet. So he still trusts the technique that's brought him here. It's not air-tight but he compensates for it by making sure that every time he gets the chance to score he takes full toll.

Sunil Gavaskar pointed this out on the broadcast, where although his playing with hard hands leaves him suspect to the moving ball, the same thing ensures that every time he hits with the middle of the bat, he gets four runs. And once you have some runs in the bank, your confidence starts to go up and everything changes.

Look at Rabada's pitch map. It's an absolute dream. Everything on a good length. Everything targeting the stumps. Everything bringing the two edges of the bat into play. Nothing short. Nothing down leg. Nothing easy. All of it at 140 kph.

PS - it doesn't include the seventh over that Rabada is currently bowling, where he created the second chance of the game within the first half hour. A good length ball that REARS UP at Rahul. This is an in-form batter, remember. And he's completely done.

It's straight. So he has to play. It misbehaves late. So he can't adjust. The only saving grace is that, the ball having taken the outside edge of the shoulder of the bat, balloons over Marco Janson at gully.

This is Kagiso Rabada in the first over, predominantly trying to move the ball away from the bat.

KL Rahul faced these deliveries and he's been very difficult to tempt outside the off stump. Even so, the South African quick found a perfect line - fourth stump - and then his skill with the wobble seam delivery produced a couple of hair-raising moments. #Beatenbybeauties

This is Duanne Olivier from the other end.

He was decking the ball into the right-hander, Mayank Agarwal cut in half by the last ball of that over. South Africa have hit their rhythm very quickly and Cape Town is offering just enough movement - the kind that takes the edge, instead of going so far that it beats it

And here's Rabada again.

The fourth ball of the over producing a false shot that carries to the right of Keegan Petersen at third slip. Difficult chance, coming in low and at speed. Agarwal has a tendency to push at the ball with hard hands. That's the reason he's not a bang-on certainty in this Indian XI and this was another example of how he needs to tighten his game

India still in the wars. Not in control of nine of the first 24 balls of the innings.

India captain Virat Kohli: "Luckily my spasm healed in about three days. Gutted that if flared up on the morning of the last Test. I come in for Vihari. Siraj is injured. Umesh Yadav replaces him. It was a tough decision, Umesh or Ishant, but in the last few Tests he's played, he's been brilliant. Pretty handy with the new ball and a gun in the field as well. We are playing in South Africa and people saying "India were beaten" is a point of pride because that means they are expecting us to win even away from home."

India 1`KL Rahul, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rishabh Pant, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

South Africa captain Dean Elgar says he would have preferred to bat first given the deterioration of the pitch later in the game. We've had a brilliant journey so far. We've lost a lot of players recently and we've asked a lot from the younger players. They don't have any scars or damages. They've come in with a new mindset. And then you have me with the old-school mentality which has been a balancing act for us. South Africa are unchanged"

South Africa Dean Elgar (capt), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne(w), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi

It feels a bit reductive to say it but Mohammed Siraj is that cricketer that "makes things happen".

He's whole-hearted. He's hungry. He's beyond skilled. And on top of all that, he seems to have a little bit of destiny about him.

He's been a fun addition to this team that has on more than one occasion seemed in overpowered big boss mode.

Which makes it a shame that he's been injured.

Still, India won't be too hard done by considering the status of his replacement. Ishant Sharma. Over 100 Test matches' experience. Spell-bindingly good against left-hand batters such as Dean Elgar.

Ishant should slot right into the XI in Cape Town today and given it's a big away game Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara will be trusted to come up with the goods. They've done it before and though they are under pressure like never before, it won't be surprising if they do it again.

Perhaps when India go back home, they might turn their eyes towards the newer players vying for the No. 3 and No. 5 spot