South Africa vs India, 1st Test Day 1 Stats Review: KL Rahul’s sixth away century, Cheteshwar Pujara's unfortunate record and other stats

Team India began their overseas era with Rahul Dravid in a full-time role as the coach in style as KL Rahul powered India to 272/3 at stumps on Day one of the first Test by scoring his sixth away century. After winning the toss, skipper Virat Kohli decided to bat first with the exclusion of Shreyas Iyer from the playing XI came as a surprise to many.

KL Rahul’s Karnataka teammate and his opening partner Mayank Agarwal continued his solid form from the New Zealand series as he scored 60 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara’s rough patch in Tests extended as he bagged the second golden duck of his career, coincidentally his other golden naught also came against South Africa at the same venue in the year 2018.

Skipper Kohli’s wait for 71^st international ton continued as he got out after getting a start for 35. Lungi Ngidi got his wicket too as all the three wickets in the day went to him.

Under pressure, Ajinkya Rahane looked good and remained unbeaten on 40. With KL Rahul playing extremely well on 122* and the aggressive Rishabh Pant to come in next, India would hope for a big first-innings total on the board. On the other hand, the hosts will look for early wickets from Kagiso Rabada-led bowling attack on day two morning to try and stop the visitors from posting a big score.

Meanwhile, here are the important stats and numbers from South Africa vs India, 1^st Test Day 1:

9 – Cheteshwar Pujara became the joint-fourth batter with Ricky Ponting to record nine ducks at no.3 in Tests.

1 – Pujara became the Indian batter with most ducks (9) at no.3 in Tests.

2 – KL Rahul became only the second Indian opener to hit a Test century in South Africa. Wasim Jaffer was the other opener to achieve the feat in 2007.

2 – Only second time Pujara has bagged golden duck in Tests. Interestingly, the first one also came against South Africa at the same venue in 2018.

1525 – Kohli reached 1500 runs in international cricket in South Africa. For India, Sachin Tendulkar (2624), Rahul Dravid (1554) and Sourav Ganguly (1554) are ahead of him.

4 – Fourth Test century in total by KL Rahul as an opener in England, Australia and South Africa. Among the SENA countries, Rahul has not scored a century in New Zealand only.

3 – This was the third duck for Cheteshwar Pujara in 2021.

122* – KL Rahul’s score is the highest by any Indian opener in South Africa. He went past Wasim Jaffer’s score of 116 which he had scored in the Cape Town Test in 2007.

117 – KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal shared third-best opening partnership against South Africa in South Africa. Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik with 153 runs in 2007 and Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir with 137 runs in 2010 are in top two.

3 – Mayank Agarwal with 60 runs recorded his third-best score in away Tests.

35 – India recorded their 35^th duck in Tests in 2021. Only England have more ducks (50) this year.

1 – First century for KL Rahul against South Africa in Tests.

6 – Out of seven Test tons, KL Rahul has scored six centuries in away Tests.

2019 – First time since August 2019, both KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal opened the batting for India in Tests.