Murali Vijay's fifty grinds South Africa

NEW DELHI: Indian opener Murali Vijay reached his fourth half-century soon after lunch on the first day of the second Test against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban on Thursday.

Scorecard

The second session started with Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara resuming the Indian first innings after lunch.

Morne Morkel gave South Africa their first breakthrough when he dismissed Shikhar Dhawan.

After electing to bat first, India got off to decent start courtesy Dhawan and Vijay who looked determined to face the South Africa pacers by putting up a bright 41-run stand for the opening wicket.

However, Morkel was successful in forcing Dhawan (29) to edge the delivery towards third slip where it was comfortably taken by Robin Peterson.

Earlier, Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat.

India made one change for this match as bringing in Ravindra Jadeja in place of R Ashwin. On the other hand, South Africa brought in Robin Peterson for Imran Tahir.

"The wicket looks good, slightly on the dry side, but it will have pace and bounce for the fast bowlers," Dhoni said at the toss.

"It's been an emotional few days, we hope that he gets celebrated in the next five days and we can really put in the performance that is fitting for the man who has done so much for South African cricket," South Africa captain Graeme Smith said at the toss.

After sharing the honours in a thrilling draw in the first Test, which turned out to be the most perfect advertisement for Test cricket giving five days of an engaging clash, the second Test promises to be another epic encounter.

South Africa were left needing just eight runs for what would have been one of the most memorable Test wins of all time on Day 5 of the opening Test. India, on the other hand, were left wondering as to what turned the fortunes so drastically after four days of domination.

Teams:

India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (Capt.), AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Alviro Petersen, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn.

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Shweta Pandey

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