WATCH: Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis left amazed as Temba Bavuma losses toss despite Murali Kartik’s blunder

Dixit Bhargav | 19/10/2019
WATCH: Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis left amazed as Temba Bavuma losses toss despite Murali Kartik's blunder

Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis left amazed: Both the captain couldn’t help themselves but laugh during the toss in Ranchi.

During the third Test of the ongoing South Africa’s tour of India in Ranchi, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis stood by his words and didn’t call for the toss in an interesting move. South Africa had sent in batsman Temba Bavuma as a “proxy captain” to call during the toss.

Having lost the toss and a significant advantage in the first two Tests, South Africa had decided to try someone other than du Plessis to call during the toss. However, Bavuma’s presence didn’t yield the desired result for them as India captain Virat Kohli ended up winning the toss for the third time in the series.

While Bavuma walked away right after losing the toss, the expressions on both Kohli and du Plessis’ face spoke highly about both disbelief and jocularity.

It is worth mentioning that the last time any South African Test captain (Hashim Amla) won the toss in Asia was during their tour of Bangladesh in 2015.

Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis left amazed

“It [Bavuma losing the toss] shows that it isn’t meant to be. 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,” du Plessis was quoted as saying during the toss.

Former India spinner Murali Kartik, who was overseeing the toss, committed a blunder with respect to hearing what Bavuma called. According to Kartik, Bavuma had called “tails” but that wasn’t the case. The proxy skipper had called “heads” and lost the toss after the coin displayed “tails”.

While India made a solitary change to their Playing XI bringing in debutant spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in place of pacer Ishant Sharma, South Africa have made as many as five changes to their Playing XI.

Batsman Zubayr Hamza, uncapped wicket-keeper and spinner Heinrich Klaasen and George Linde, spinner Dane Piedt and fast bowler Lungi Ngidi have replaced the injured duo of opening batsman Aiden Markram and spinner Keshav Maharaj, batsman Theunis de Bruyn, all-rounder Senuran Muthusamy and veteran pacer Vernon Philander.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Faf Du Plessis India South Africa South Africa tour of India 2019 Temba Bavuma Virat Kohli

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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