Ruturaj Gaikwad has fallen here, and it is Marco Jansen who eventually got the wicket. Once again, it is the bumper from

Jansen which did the trick. The batter did not have enough room to free his hands and pull, and he eventually top-edged

one straight to Tony De Zorzi and square-leg. There was a similar shot which Gaikwad played earlier in the innings,

which went for a six, but this time not so lucky. KL Rahul is the new man in, and India is in a superb position here to

look for a score around that 370-380 mark.

Ruturaj Gaikwad pulled one through mid-wicket for a boundary to get his first ODI 100. What a brilliant knock this has

been from him. It's more than the runs; how he has managed to get them has been quite magnificent. He started quickly,

and then once he settled into his innings, he made sure there was a good partnership between him and Kohli, and once

they had laid the foundation, Gaikwad changed gears pretty quickly yet again. Top innings that from the Indian number

four quality of the highest class.

We have reached the second water break in this contest, and the passage has belonged to India. Gaikwad has batted

brilliantly here. The acceleration he has brought into this innings for the last 30 minutes or so has been quite

momentum-shifting. South Africa is going through the motions a bit; they might be better off just slowing the game down

for a bit. Bowlers run in slowly, think about the delivery they want to bowl make the batters wait. Because, as of now,

everything is in T20 mode for India.

There is a change in gear from Gaikwad here; he has played it run-a-ball pace that Maharaj over, but post that, he did

decide to break the shackles, did Gaikwad and is now going after the bowling. He is playing it all around the clock, and

runs are flowing for India now. Well, although not a lot of ODI cricket has been played of late but India seems to have

got their pacing of the innings spot on in the previous game and today as well. The way the partnership was constructed,

and now one of the set batters is taking on the bowling.

Keshav Maharaj has come back into the attack, and Ruturaj Gaikwad went after the bowler. He is extremely good against

left-arm spinners. He has an imperious inside-out shot and also plays slog sweep quite effectively. The way this

partnership is going and is laying the foundation, India once again should be looking at 330-340. We have seen in the

first game, despite the score India has managed to get and the wickets they have tumbled with the new ball, South Africa

still managed to get closer to the target because of the dew, and there will be a lot of it today as well.

Virat Kohli too has now got to his half-century. It has been a different innings from him compared to what happened in

Ranchi. The wicket was different, the pitch was different, and it did require a different knock from him, which he

delivered successfully, and he does tend to convert these half-centuries into centuries more often than not. With the

amount of time that is left in this game, it is pretty much a probability that he will be scoring back-to-back centuries

in this series after all the doubts that were raised on both RoKo.

Gaikwad has batted quite nicely here in the middle. He was troubled a bit when he walked in against Marco Jansen, but as

the innings went on, the fluency came nicely, and once he got himself in, he stopped playing the attacking shots he did

early on. One of the trade-mark of this partnership has been the hard running, and that is pretty important on ground

sizes as big as this one in Raipur. As we update, he punched in another boundary and took a single to get a 50 here.

That is maiden ODI half-century for Gaikwad.

Bavuma is bringing in the bowling changes here. One thing which has been noticeable, be it the last game or today, the

South Africans have opted for their bowlers to bowl short, sharp bursts. Once again today, as we see apart from Keshav

Maharaj, all the other bowlers have bowled short bursts of 3-4 overs. One way it does help them as it does not allow

batters to settle against one type of bowling. On the flip side, though, if a bowler is planning a certain kind of

dismissal, he won't be on attack for too long to implement it.

A 50-run partnership between Kohli and Gaikwad has come up here. The duo, since getting together, has batted quite

nicely. Kohli espically has shown a different side of his today. In the first game he started quickly and then adjusted

his tempo as the innings went on but today he played it a touch on the safer side letting Gaikwad take the risks as the

primary scorer. The challenge for these two now will be to convert this 50-run stand into 100 runs and lay a solid

foundation for the batters to follow.

We have reached the first water break of this game, and it must be said it is a shared passage, and if South Africa had

not bowled all those wides initially, they might have been even ahead, but for now, it is what it is. Virat Kohli and

Ruturaj Gaikwad are in the middle, although troubled a bit. Gaikwad has gotten himself a start here, and he should be

looking to score a ton here and throw in his name for the contention to take that number four spot for the 2027 ODI

World Cup. Kohli, on the other hand, is in his format, and he is doing what he does best, milking singles and getting

into the rhythm of his batting.

Marco Jansen is in the middle of a brilliant spell here. He is hitting the deck hard, and once again, it is the line

which he is getting bounce from that is making it quite tough for the batters to deal with it. We have seen with Jaiswal

that he did not have enough room to pull that delivery, yet he tried and got out. And the follow-up delivery to Gaikwad

was even more terrific again, no room to either cut or pull, just got himself into an unusually awkward position. As we

update, he did bowl another one of those bumpers, which Gaikwad pulled for a six.

Marco Jansen has picked up the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal here. It was a short ball from the bowler, which Jaiswal tried

to pull and got it high on the bat, and the catch was taken by the mid-wicket fielder. And Jansen followed it with

another terrific bumper to Ruturaj Gaikwad. He is in top form, Jansen is in his career, both with the ball and bat. As

per Gaikwad, it is an opportunity for him. He got out in an unfortunate way in the first game. It was a terrific catch

from Dewald Brevis at point. Today, similar to the previous game, he has time to construct his innings and make a big

score for himself here.

Marco Jansen has come into attack here. It is an interesting ploy from Bavuma not to use Jansen with the new ball;

instead gave it to Ngidi. While Jansen's new evolution can bowl at any stage of the innings but he has made his name

himself bowling with the new ball and able to extract the swing and seam moment, and we have seen both the South African

opening bowlers today had a tough time controlling it, and Jansen might have used that movement more effectively. And

also on the flip side, Ngidi has slower deliveries, which will make him a better first change than the new ball bowler.

Nandre Burger has picked up Rohit Sharma here. He did score a couple of boundaries did Rohit before Burger pulled his

length back and Rohit edged one. He was not sure was Rohit if he has hit it and nor was Burger, but De Kock was

convinced, and Bavuma did go upstairs, and there was a spike on the UltraEdge, and he had to go back. Virat Kohli has

walked into the middle with a 100 in the previous game. The Indian number three is in good form. As per South Africa,

for all the extras they have bowled, that dismissal might be what they need to gain some momentum and sort themselves.

India has gotten away here. The bowling has been pretty poor from the South Africans. Yashasvi Jaiswal has had the bulk

of the strike, and apart from the boundary of the first ball he has hit he hardly had to do anything, runs just were

coming with ease because of the extras from South Africa. As we update, Rohit Sharma has scored his first boundary. He

would be itching to face a few deliveries here, as not getting on strike for too long might just upset the rhythm of the

batters. The way the new ball bowlers have started for South Africa, it might not be a bad ploy for Bavuma to think of

bringing in Maharaj into the attack.

South Africa has bowled 10 wides already in this game. As we update, Burger has slipped to the 11th wide. There is swing

on offer, but the South African seamers cannot control it. Swing is something bowlers in this format crave for, as often

its always it's always the batters who just hit at their will, but today South Africa has something to work with, and it

might have to do with the way this ground is structured, but regardless, they are not able to capitalise on the

advantage they have. They need to get their radar sooner rather than later here, do the South Africans.

14 runs came off that first over. Nandre Burger was all over the place for Yashasvi Jaiswal. There was a bit of a late

swing on offer for the bowler, which he could not control. Either he was too full and wide or was down the leg-side. One

thing, though, that happened, De Kock had a torrid time dealing with late swing. It is a bit of a rare phenomenon in

India to watch a ball swing after it has gone past the batter. It is only the 2nd ODI at this venue last time a game was

played here. In New Zealand, where bundled out for a pretty low total, there was a lot of swing that day as well.

"We are right in the center, so it's 67m either side (square boundaries), straight down is 74m. From one end, it looks

nice, dry and it looks like a good batting surface. On the other end, it's quite patchy. There are cracks and some dry

spots, it looks a little bit uneven. You'll get some uneven bounce and you're going to get a two-paced surface. It isn't

going to be as high-scoring as we saw in Ranchi. The other thing to be careful of is the reverse swing as it's quite

abrasive. The other important thing is the dew as well, fair bit of dew and toss becomes that much more important. You

definitely would want to chase."

We are gonna have a bowl. (On the pitch) It's very hard to say, to be honest. We're hoping that as the night comes in,

the dew comes in, it gets a bit easier with the ball skidding more. But it's very hard to say what it's going to play

like. A lot of positives (from the last game). We did very well to get the game to that point, looking at the way we

started in our first 10 overs of our batting, it shows that belief is there. We've got three changes. Myself, Keshav

Maharaj and Lungi Ngidi will be coming in. No changes in terms of the combination. Big game for us, chance to keep the

series alive.

(On losing another toss) Honestly, that's the most pressure I've had because we haven't won a toss in a long time. I've

been practising, but clearly it's not working. I think we did really well last game. A lot of positives from the last

game, so just trying to continue that. And, come out here, play hard cricket again. They pushed us last game as well. We

know what to expect. The boys are looking in good shape. And I'm excited about this game. Before the series as well, we

spoke about it (dew). This is a time in India where there is a lot of dew. We're expecting dew in every place that we

play. So, the bowlers have spoken about it. A few tactics and a few things that we've spoken about, which I think we did

really well in the last game. So, that'll give our bowling team a lot of confidence. Just carry from there and keep

getting better. If we put runs on board and pick up a few wickets early on, then it becomes a bit easier for us. The

wicket looks good. The only reason any team opt to bat second is the dew factor and not much to do with the wicket.

We're playing with the same team.

“With the new ball I am practicing a lot with Morne (Morkel) and I keep talking to Arshdeep a lot. I feel that Arshdeep

has a lot of experience and he keeps helping and guiding me during practice,” Rana said.

“You know that bowlers do not get so much help in today’s cricket so this rule is very helpful for us and it is always

on the mind to see which ball is getting older. And everyone is involved in choosing that ball,” he said.

“If I start listening to all these things, put them in my mind and take the field, I won’t be able to play cricket. I

try to avoid as much as possible. I just pay attention to what I have to do on the ground. I don’t care about what is

happening outside or what someone is saying about me. I just focus on my hard work and what I am going to do on the

ground,” Rana said on how he deals with the criticism.

“The first person to be criticised is the coach and the selector, I have been both, so they will get the criticism,

never mind. As long as your conscience is right, that matters,” he said.

“If the team is not doing good then it becomes a case of (critics) going after the selectors. But if the team is not

doing well then it is also a calculative thing that your coach is as good as your team.”

“It is their decision and not anybody else’s. So (it should be) whatever they decide,” Lal told PTI Videos on the

sidelines of an Asian Legends League Season 2.

“But the way they are playing the ODI series, shows that they are still very, very fresh and look like they are some 28

or 30-years-old.

“The way Virat Kohli is running (between the wickets while) taking the singles and hitting the balls. It’s nice to see

(the way they are going),” he added.

Hello and welcome to our live blog of India taking on South Africa in the 2nd ODI. While the hosts would want to win the

game and finish the series off while the visitors would be looking to pull back things. It is going to be a fascinating

contest. Stay with us for all the updates.