Rohit brought up his fifth Test century and became only the second Indian opener to hit two hundreds in a Test match after Sunil Gavaskar.
Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma (R) raises his bat after scoring a century (100 runs) during the fourth day's play of the first Test match between India and South Africa at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on October 5, 2019. (Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP)
After setting South Africa a target of 395 runs to win in the fourth innings, courtesy a brilliant Rohit Sharma hundred and half-century from Chesteshwar Pujara, India have managed to put the Proteas on the back foot by already picking up a wicket with just 11 runs on the board at stumps on Day 4.
The day began with the South African batsmen resuming their first innings. Despite getting the lead to less than a hundred runs, they did not last long after that as Ravichandran Ashwin picked completed a seven-wicket haul to help India take a substantial lead going into the second innings.
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New Indian opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal then came out to try and help India set a match-winning total. While Mayank Agarwal could not repeat his first innings heroics and was dismissed early, Rohit Sharma along with Chesteshwar Pujara took the game forward. Rohit continued where he had left off in the first innings and went after the spinners after he had given initial respect to the new ball. The duo added 169 invaluable runs for the second team and did that at a quick scoring rate to help India take control of the match.
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Vernon Philander then managed to break the partnership by dismissing Pujara. It was Ravindra Jadeja who was promoted at No 4 to try and accelerate and the move paid off with both Rohit and Jadeja putting their feet on the accelerator and scoring runs all around the park. Rohit, in particular, was unstoppable and even hit Dane Piedt for three consecutive sixes in one over.
Rohit brought up his fifth Test century and became only the second Indian opener to hit two hundreds in a Test match after Sunil Gavaskar. Overall, Rohit became the sixth Indian batsman to achieve the feat as he also hit 13 sixes in the match- a new world record.
Before being dismissed, stumped by Quinton de Kock off the bowling of Keshav Maharaj, Rohit had put India in a strong position. Virat Kohli, Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane later chipped in with healthy contributions and eventually declared at a 323/4, giving South Africa a total of 395 to chase.
Jadeja then also managed to dismiss South African opener and first-innings centurion Dean Elgar cheaply before bad light forced umpired to call it stumps.
While South Africa require another 384 runs to win the Test, India are nine wickets away from taking a lead in the Test series.
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