India v South Africa 1st Test - Rohit Sharma Lights Up Gloomy Vizag With Maiden 100 as Opener

The rain forecast for the entire Test match had not been great but the good news was nearly 60 overs were possible in the day. And India, opting to bat first after South African captain Faf du Plessis called it wrong at the toss again, piled up the misery on him by piling up 202 without loss.

In doing so, Rohit reached his fourth Test match century and first as a Test opener while Mayank Agarwal was nearing his own when bad light stopped play. India had already announced Rohit would be opening in this series, much to the chagrin of many a cricket fan.

They had a valid point too. For someone who has shown a weakness against the moving ball, why send him up the order when the talent pool in the country had already thrown up a few openers from domestic cricket.

One of them, Shubman Gill, was in the squad, and Rohit himself has averaged less than 40 in his start-stop career and less than 30 away from home.

In order to develop someone for overseas conditions, this would have an ideal way to begin, especially because at the other end Agarwal had shown his mettle in Australia late last year.

However, such has been this team’s belief in Rohit that they have always backed him to deliver the goods, even in the red-ball format of the game. And deliver he did or what.

Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander were South Africa’s only two seamers but once the ball had lost its sheen they found it tough to extract anything out of the surface.

In a near acceptance of this through, South African captain du Plessis opted to start off with just two slips and a gully - a rarity on ball one off a Test match. And very little went through the cordon by way of a false shot, thereby allowing the partnership to flower.

It took South Africa just eight overs to change things around and bring on their first spin bowler, Keshav Maharaj. It wasn’t such a bad move to get on a classic spinner with the early moisture - if any - on the surface worth exploiting but there was nothing for him. Or for Dane Piedt, who was called upon in the 19th.

In fact, after a fairly docile start from both batsmen, it was the sight of the offie, Piedt, that freed them up. Rohit smacked his first six off Maharaj next over and Agarwal late vut Piedt through point to the fence.

33 runs came from this period of five overs with both batsmen helping themselves to sixes and there was no looking back from there on.Debutant Senuran Muthusamy’s left-arm spin had no effect on the batsmen either, except speeding up Rohit’s quest to bring up his half-century. It was his first as a Test opener and India went to the break at 91 without loss.

Post lunch, du Plessis tried to go on the defensive with his bowlers looking to keep the batsmen quiet instead of opting to pick up wickets, resulting in a string of 22 dot balls for them.

However, when the runs came, they came like a dam had suddenly burst. Agarwal got to his own half-century with lofted cover-drive that went for a six, and very soon du Plessis had no option but to go back to Piedt.Almost on cue, the openers went after his bowling.

And that looked to have unsettled him as he dished out a long-hop or a fullish ball every now and then. Not that it was mattering too much to Rohit, who took him on anyway by jumping down the pitch on two occasions in the same over and earning himself a couple of sixes.

Those took him into the 90s and a few overs later, Rohit brought up his century with a push through the covers. The questions around how he would go in overseas conditions will remain but for now, he seems to have silenced some of his red-ball critics.

Only a few minutes before the official tea break, the weather turned for the worst and it started drizzling soon after to finish off the day’s play, much to South Africa’s relief.

By then, however, India had already crashed past the 200-run mark and in facing 355 deliveries to get there, joined the top 10 list of Indian Test match opening partnerships by balls faced.

The only piece of good news for South Africa is that the weather isn’t looking very good for the rest of the four days. While the pitch on day one looked flat from a bowling point of view, there was enough dryness to suggest it could start to break up as the Test match goes on.

A tough second day ahead for the visitors even as the Indian batsmen look to pile on some more of the same.