India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma hits ton but rain washes out final session at Vizag

Rohit Sharma scored a century in his first innings as a Test opener as India were 202-0 against South Africa before rain washed out the final session of Day 1 of the first Test in Vizag on Wednesday (October 2).

Mayank Agarwal (84) also played well alongside Rohit and looked on course for his maiden Test hundred before thunderstorms followed by a heavy spell of rain ensured no play was possible after tea.

Rohit ended the day on 115 and will have assuaged some fears over his viability as an opener in the longest format of the game after skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat.

While the South African bowlers did trouble the Indian batsmen on a few occasions in the first session, by the second session the ball was not doing much and Rohit and Agarwal scored freely.

Rohit, who got to his fifty before lunch, accelerated with ease and was particularly harsh on the spinners.

Agarwal was cruising towards his maiden Test ton. He too looked assured at the crease and played his shots.

Early into the afternoon session, he brought up his half century with a six over extra cover off Keshav



Maharaj.

Clouds gathered over the stadium towards the end of the session and thunderstorms forced the umpires to take the tea break slightly early.

Expecting the pitch to turn, South Africa picked three spinners in Maharaj, Piedt and Muthusamy.

All eyes were expectedly on Rohit whose stop-start Test career has taken a new direction with the management accommodating him at the top of the order.

What worked for Rohit was standing outside the crease when Philander was bowling to negate any little swing that was available.

After getting the measure of the surface, Rohit went for his strokes like he does in white-ball cricket.

Rohit completed his 11th Test half-century towards the end of the session when he mistimed a sweep but fortunately it was not in the reach of the fielder and went for a four.

Getting to his fifty opened the shackles for Rohit and he scored at a brisk rate thereafter.

He hammered off-spinner Danie Piedt for successive sixes over deep midwicket to get into the nineties before completing his fourth Test ton with a single off debutant spinner Senuran Muthusamy.