India vs South Africa: Murali Kartik goofs it up at the toss in Ranchi

The opening scenes of the third Test match between India and South Africa in Ranchi were bizarre on many counts. First, the visiting captain Faf du Plessis brought with him his deputy Temba Bavuma to take the coin call since he has been losing a lot of tosses. Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss in both the two Tests before Ranchi and elected to bat first and his team won convincingly on both occasions. And then, the anchor at the toss, Murali Kartik, goofed it up over the call that Bavuma took. SA ended up losing their third toss in a row in the Test series which they are trailing 0-2.

Like he had done in the past by calling in JP Duminy to bear ill-luck, du Plessis brought Bavuma to the toss hoping for a change in fortunes and the Proteas vice-captain called heads only to see the flip going against him. This loss means Du Plessis has lost seven tosses in a row in Tests overseas. And in terms of match results, the Proteas have now lost 10 Tests in a row in Asia.

Du Plessis was disappointed with the toss outcome and said: “It shows that it isn’t meant to be (about using Bavuma as a proxy skipper for luck). Important toss as this looks the driest surface of the series. It’s about the first innings really and we need to put runs on the board when we bat. One forced change with Aiden (Markram).”

However, Kartik, a former India spinner, said Bavuma called “tails” and it was tails while the fact is that he called “heads” and the coin landed showing tails. Kohli, the ultimate beneficiary, was not complaining though. He chose to bat yet again while Kartik was seen giving a sheepish smile to get over it quickly.

Here’s the video

Virat Kohli called it a no-brainer to bat first at the Toss #TeamIndia #INDvSA @Paytm 🇮🇳🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/3V4fKvcVWr

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 19, 2019

SA put India in a corner before Rohit slammed ton

Although SA had India in a corner by knocking out three early wickets, yet another hundred from opener Rohit Sharma and a strong partnership with Ajinkya Rahane who was also approaching his hundred at the time of writing this report saw India turning the tables around on Day 1.