India won the toss, elected to bowl first in second test match against South Africa

South Africa:53/3 (17.0 Over), Day 1: 1st Session

India have won the toss and have opted to field in the second test match of the four test match series against South Africa, at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore, on Saturday.

Recently, South Africa has lost three early wickets just at a score of 53 runs in 17 overs. Ashwin got both batsmen out by two brilliant deliveries in a same over and Aron got the wicket of captain of South Africa.

Ashwin strikes second ball and South Africa has lost the first wicket in the very early session of the match. The crowd found their voice. And the crowd are steadily building too. Easy call for Kettle borough. Basically van Zyl has missed a straight delivery, on middle, floated up and van Zyl was late on the forward defence, the ball strikes him below the knee roll and would've been crashing into middle and leg. He also didn't come sufficiently forward to that one. He pays the price for his laziness. Nothing great about the ball, just that van Zyl caused his own downfall there. India won't mind that one bit though.  

Du Plessis walks off after being given out by the third umpire and hence South Africa has lost its second wicket in the same over. But I have my doubts. To me a part of the ball was touching the grass before being safely clasped by Pujara. The third umpire is Shams Uddin who has a couple of replays to look at and then makes his call. Needed more looks I guess. But he seems happy and that's what matters. The soft signal was out from Kettle borough which meant there needed to be conclusive evidence to overturn that call. Anyway coming to the wicket - du Plessis came down the track, the ball spun in and there was an inside edge onto the pad on the flick, went low and near his bootlaces, fielder at short leg got both hands and held on, but the ball seemed to have a touched a blade of grass as fielder cupped it with his left-hand. He gets up and throws the ball away in delight. Reflex catch and a top one at that for he stayed low and concentrated on the ball instead of du Plessis's footwork. Brilliant effort from fielder and the Indians are all patting him for that. 

Ishant Sharma, who comes back into the Test after a serving a one-match ban, will open the bowling for India. The first ball is pitched right up as Van Zyl defends it off the front foot. A couple of deliveries later, he drives a slightly wide delivery through the covers where Ravindra Jadeja makes a good stop.

Before the start of play, AB de Villiers was felicitated by the Karnataka State Cricket Association for his achievement of completing 100 Test matches. KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel and other officials presented the South African with a momento.

India captain Virat Kohli has won the toss and elected to bowl.

The big news from Bangalore is that India are playing an extra medium pacer in place of a spinner. Local boy and all-rounder Stuart Binny comes in place of leg-spinner Amit Mishra, while Ishant Sharma, as expected, takes the place of Umesh Yadav.

Kohli is expecting the wicket to provide a bit of assistance on the opening day and is looking towards his three fast bowlers, including Binny, to exploit the early help from the wicket

Hashim Amla said after the toss, "I was pretty close to thinking on the same lines (talking about opting to bowl). But probably we would have batted first as well. Hopefully, we will get a good total on the board. We have lost Vernon (Philander) for the rest of the series, Dale (Steyn) for this game. Three changes for us. Vernon, Dale and Simon Harmer miss      out. JP (Duminy), Morne (Morkel) and Kyle (Abbott) are playing this game."

Virat Kohli mentioned after winning the toss, "We are going to bowl first. It's been raining for the last week here, the pitch has been under covers. So there must be a lot of moisture. We predict that the moisture will stay through the day and probably for tomorrow's morning session as well. This is a surface that is more binded. It all depends on how much sun we get. We are playing a balanced combination. Ishant Sharma comes back for Umesh Yadav and we have Stuart Binny in place of Amit Mishra."

Meanwhile, South Africa have also made three changes to their team from the first match. Fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander miss out because of injuries and were replaced by Morne Morkel and Kyle Abott.

J P Duminy returns to bolster the batting in place of off-spinner Simon Harmer.
This will be South African batting genius AB de Villiers's 100th Test match. He has already spoken about how special it is for him to complete the landmark at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, his home away from home, following his exploits for Royal Challengers Bangalore, in the Indian Premier League for the last few years.