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India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour was all praise for skipper Virat Kohli’s batting, saying he reaped the rewards for being more disciplined with his off-side play even as his team's performance on Day 1 of the third Test against South Africa, in Newlands, Cape Town, was "below par".
Kohli was a picture of patience and perseverance while compiling a well-crafted 79, but South Africa gained the upper hand by bowling out the visitors for an underwhelming 223 on Tuesday.
“There was never concern with the way he (Kohli) was batting. I mean, he was always batting well. I thought, as a batting coach, I was never concerned that he is not batting well; he was looking very good in the nets; he was looking very good in the game also... he was getting starts.
“One good change today, he was more disciplined. I agree with that. So he really looked good, really good, solid, and with a bit of luck he could have converted (his fifty) into a big one. But I am happy (with) the way he played,” elaborated Rathour, at the media interaction after the opening day’s play.
Kohli was found wanting in the off-stump corridor heading into the third Test.
However, Rathour did not sound too pleased with the overall batting performance.
“These are challenging conditions, not easy conditions to score runs in, but you are right. We were below par. We could have scored 50-60 more runs. That's what we were at least expecting,” Rathour said.
According to him, there were soft dismissals in the latter part of the innings and the batters could have done a better job.
“Virat played a phenomenal innings. Pujara was looking really good, but then they bowled a good spell in the morning. The conditions were overcast and they were challenging (for batting), but, again, I thought there were some soft dismissals in the later part of the innings; we could have done better definitely,” admitted Rathour.
The 52-year-old former India batter said the team hopes to restrict South Africa to a low total on Day 2.
“The lesser the runs... I hope it will be an equal innings and they won't get a big lead."