On Friday, November 14, the first day of the first Test in the two-match series belonged firmly to hosts India at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata with Jasprit Bumrah taking his 16th five-wicket haul to help
bundle out South Africa for 159 runs in 55 overs in their first innings. In response, India lost their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal cheaply to Marco Jansen in the third session before the stumps were called on day one.
Earlier, Temba Bavuma, the captain of South Africa, won the toss and decided to bat first before their openers Aiden Markram (31 off 48) and Ryan Rickelton (23 off 22) got off to a flyer. They shared a 57-run opening stand before Jasprit Bumrah got into the act and dismissed them with a couple of superb deliveries in back-to-back overs, to bring India right back into the contest.
Temba Bavuma was dismissed for three on the bowling of Kuldeep Yadav before the latter got the better of Wiaan Mulder lbw for 24 off 51 at the start of the second session on the reverse sweep. Tony de Zorzi (24 off 55) was dismissed lbw by Jasprit Bumrah to take his third wicket of the day before Tristan Stubbs and Kyle Verreynne tried to rebuild South Africa innings from 120/5 in the 33 over.
But then, in his return spell, Mohammed Siraj found some reverse swing and got the better of Verreynne and Jansen in quick succession with the latter not troubling the scorers. Ultimately, Bumrah cleaned up the tail by dismissing Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj to pick up yet another five-wicket haul in Test cricket, his third in India to ensure South Africa were bowled out without getting anywhere close to a respectable total at the Eden Gardens.
In their first innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t find it easy to bat at the crease against a potent South African pace bowling attack with the new ball before his stumps were uprooted by Marco Jansen for 12 off 27 with three fours and no singles. All-rounder Washington Sundar, who was promoted up the order to No. 3 after replacing batter Sai Sudharsan, batted circumspectly alongside opener KL Rahul.
With the light fading fast in Kolkata, Rahul (13* off 59 with two fours) and Sundar (6* off 38) batted out the first day, taking India to 37/1 in 20 overs and trailing by 122 runs with the stumps being called just one minute after the scheduled close of play.
