Nagpur, Feb 6 - Zaheer Khan gave India a rousing start, removing South African openers in a ferocious opening spell, before the visitors recovered through Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla to reach 90 for two at lunch on the first day of the first cricket Test here Saturday.
Electing to bat, South Africa were reduced to six for two. But Kallis dropped anchor, scoring an unbeaten 55, while Amla gave him support with a patient 24 to pull their side out of trouble.
Plagued by injuries at the start of the match, India received another blow in the morning when Rohit Sharma, named as back-up to the injured V. V. S. Laxman, hurt his ankle in the warm up session.
That paved the way for Bengal's wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha to make his Test debut. Tamil Nadu's Subramaniam Badrinath, who has been on the fringes for some years, was the other debutant for India.
Karnataka's Murali Vijay, who has done well whenever he got a chance, will bat at number three.
It will be a completely new Indian middle order with no Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Yuvraj Singh, who are all sitting out with injuries.
Zaheer livened up the proceedings with a lethal spell (6-4-2-2). The left arm seamer extracted pace, bounce and movement from the first day's wicket.
He got his reward in the fifth over of the day when Ashwell Price, surprised by a well-directed bouncer, played unsteadily and gave a catch behind the stumps. Though Prince was a touch unlucky as cameras later revealed that the ball reared up after brushing his arm guard.
South African captain Graeme Smith was clearly not comfortable facing Zaheer, who mixed his deliveries well.
Zaheer enjoys a good success rate against Smith and dismissed the in-form batsman with an excellent delivery that cut back a shade and crashed into the left-hander's stumps.
Veteran Kallis led the rescue act, buying his time in the middle to settle down. Amla provided him support at the other end.
Kallis remained unbeaten on 55 off 81 balls with six fours and one six. Amla's 24 came off 57 ball with two fours. (IANS)
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