South Africa face a final-day battle to save the first Test with India after ending day four on 11-1 in pursuit of 395 for victory. The Proteas lost opener Dean Elgar for just two and any thoughts of scoring the remaining 384 runs they need to win the match will have gone out of the window.
Day four began with the tourists on 385-8 in their first innings and they were eventually all out for 431 in reply to India’s mammoth 502-7 declared. Senuran Muthusamy finished unbeaten on 33 but the real stars for South Africa were Elgar, who hit a superb 160 and Quinton de Kock, who scored 111 to give the Africans a chance of coming out of the contest with a draw.
The Asians needed quick runs to set the opposition a fourth-innigs target and Rohit Sharma added 127 to his first-innings 176 while Cheteshwar Pujara made 81.
There were also contributions for Ravindra Jadeja (40) and skipper Virat Kohli, who ended up unbeaten on 31 as the hosts declared on 323-4 from 67 overs. Faf du Plessis’s side needed a solid start to begin their quest for survival but Elgar was trapped in front by Jadeja and there will be no heroics from the left-hander in the second knock.
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