South Africa vs India 2018, 3rd Test, Day 1: 5 things we learnt

#3 South Africa's costly mistakes

Faf du Plessis missed a trick by not reviewing an LBW shout

South Africa were nearly flawless with the ball all through the first session but had two lapses that proved to be extremely costly. Lungi Ngidi struck Cheteshwar Pujara on the back-foot off one that angled into the right-hander but the South African skipper and Quinton de Kock thought it might be going down the leg-side and chose not to review.

Replays showed that the ball would have hit the leg-stump.

The costlier one, though, was Virat Kohli's let off. Kagiso Rabada constantly tested Kohli on a fourth stump line and suddenly decided to bounce the skipper. Kohli was in no position to hook but took on the delivery, with the edge carrying to cover where Vernon Philander put down a sitter.

Kohli was then put down by AB de Villiers off Morne Morkel in the second session, the acrobatic South African missing a straightforward chance off an ugly shot from the Indian skipper.

Ajinkya Rahane was the next one to be let off as Philander had him caught behind off a no-ball. While Rahane departed soon after, the Kohli drops hurt South Africa.