Bumrah saves India in third Test

That shot also brought up the 50-run stand between Elgar and Amla for the second wicket.

Match referee Andy Pyrcroft came onto the field as Elgar received treatment, with the physio applying an ice pack to his head.

The Indian team manager Sunil Subramaniam said that they want to play on the surface despite the concerns raised by the match officials and the South African team but the decision whether play continues doesn’t rest with them.

“New ball is challenging but you can not call it risky, When Amla got 60, no one talked about the pitch”.

But India are not happy about it. “If there was a period to call off play, it should’ve been sooner rather than later”. “Slightly more bounce than usual, but if you see the wicket and see the bounce here, it was completely natural”.

Du Plessis said he was disappointed about the quality of the pitch and said there needed to be discussions between team management and groundsmen about preparing pitches of a good standard. However if the umpires do agree to continue with the Wanderers game, the responsibility of any injury to players should exclusively lie with the South African cricket administration. “So, we never really cared about what people are saying about us”, he observed.

“My thinking was if I played (well) on this wicket, I could be a hero”, Rahane said at close of play. And today is the day when the least wickets fell and the strike rates were the highest.

“No. He said in case if the new ball were to be taken – and the new ball was around 25 overs away at that time – it might behave dangerously”. Interestingly, the ball that forced stoppage of play was a normal short pitch delivery the likes of which were bowled many times during India’s second innings by the South Africans.

“Umpires are the final judges on the fitness of the ground”.

Both sets of players were left in the dressing room as it was decided what decision to take.

Eleven years ago Australia embarrassed England by winning a day/night match before the floodlights had come on and without Chris Woakes’ defiant 78 this might have been even more crushing.

With South Africa 17/1 and chasing 241 for victory, the umpires decided after lengthy consultation that conditions had become too unsafe for the batsmen and that play should be stopped for the day.

The Proteas went into this match having already won the series following victories in the Cape Town and Centurion but India prevented an embarrassing whitewash while at the same time preserved their unbeaten record here in Johannesburg as the series end 2-1.

Day three of the India vs South Africa Test in Johannesburg has been the cause of controversy, with cracks on the wicket on the pitch at the Wanderers Stadium producing a wicked bounce.