Du Plessis frustrates visitors with a steady knock

New Delhi: India seemed to have fought their way back into the contest after Shami struck thrice before the end of the first session but South African pair of Faf du Plessis and Vernon Philander stitched a crucial 46-run stand to take the hosts in a comfortable position.  At the tea break, South Africa were 230 for 7, leading India by 258 runs.

Du Plessis was batting patiently on 37 while Kagiso Rabada was yet to open his account following the dismissal of Keshav Maharaj.

The South African skipper also reached the 3000 runs mark in Test cricket and he becomes the 14^th Protea player to achieve this milestone.

In the post-lunch session, the proceedings slowed down as India were happy to not conceded too many runs.

Du Plessis and Philander too happy to play the waiting game as they did not go many scoring shots.

The duo added only 31 runs in 15 overs in just over an hour's play since lunch. Overall, their partnership for the sixth wicket yielded 46 runs off 156 balls.

In the second hour of the extended session, Ishant Sharma (2/40) got the breakthrough when Philander pulled a short delivery to Murali Vijay.

Two overs later, Keshav Maharaj (6) was also caught behind off Ishant as South Africa were reduced to 215 for seven.

But Du Plessis and Rabada managed to see out the last six overs of the session. Surprisingly, India did not take the second new ball after 80 overs.

Even more surprisingly, Mohammed Shami (3/42) bowled only one over - the last one - in the entire post-lunch session.