Match has been called off for the day as there are no possibility of light improving. India had a good day, ending at 181/6. Pujara and Vijay are leading the attack. Pujara is batting on 58, while Vijay is unbeaten on 91.
India 181/1 in 61 overs: Vijay was batting on 91 and Pujara 58 when play was called off due to bad light.
India 179/1 in 57 overs: Vijay is batting superbly and looked good for a big score, he's batting on 90 not out off 183 balls with 17 fours. Pujara gives him company on 57 not out.
India had a good session after lunch. India scored 87 runs without losing a wicket. SA bowlers look clueless against Indian batsman.
India 163/1 in 53 overs (tea called): Vijay is holding the innings together with a brilliant 76, while Pujara is giving him company with 56 not out.
India 159/1 in 51.1 overs: Although stranded in 40s for a long time, Pujara kept his cool to reach his 4th Test 50. He played 97 balls and hit 7 fours in his knock.
India 154/1 in 47 overs: Vijay dominates the SA bowling with a brilliant 73. Pujara looks for another 50, batting on 48 not out.
India 145/1 in 43 overs: Vijay is going strong on 71 with help of 14 fours. He is literally toying with SA bowling. Pujara is batting on 42.
India 136/1 in 39 overs: India is on top, scoring runs in the second session at almost five runs per over. Vijay is batting on 62 not out, while Pujara is on 42 not out.
India 121/1 in 34 overs: Vijay took his time to settle down, but soon got into groove, strucking his first 50 of the tour, off 104 balls with 11 splendid fours.
India 104/1 in 30 overs: Vijay looks good as he struck two back to back fours to get India past the 100-run mark. He is currently batting on 42. Pujara not out on 30.
India 88/1 in 28 overs: Pujara is more agressive post lunch, trying to get quick runs on the board.
India 83/1 in 27 overs: First over after lunch well negotiated by the Indians.
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara are out there in the middle. Play to resume after lunch. Dale Steyn with the ball in hand.
The session before lunch has been good for India. India lost Dhawan after the southpaw became a bit adventurous and went for a shots too many and lost his wickets due to an edge behind the wicket. Otherwise, Vijay and Pujara look solid at the crease.
India 76/1 in 26 overs (lunch called): India is comfortably placed at 76/1. Vijay is going strong on 33 not out. Pujara is 13 not out at the crease.
India 60/1 in 21 overs: Pujara and Vijay have kept things in control. Pujara looks comfortable against the short-pitch bowling. Vijay is batting on 24. Pujara is not out on 10.
India 50/1 in 16 overs: Vijay and Pujara are there at the crease, trying to bring some normalcy in the proceedings and put up a big partnership. Vijay batting on 15.
India 41/1 in 13.1 overs: Dhawan plays an outgoing delivery from Morkel, but founds an inside edge going to slip fielder Petersen. Dhawan falls for an entertaining 29.
India 38/0 in 10 overs: Dhawan is going strong at 28 not out, smashing some perfect boundaries. SA bowlers toil hard, but unable to break the rhythm of Dhawan and Vijay.
India 23/0 in 5 overs: India off the positive start. The Indian openers begin well. Dhawan is the more aggressive partner, batting on 17 not out. Vijay gives him company at 6 not out.
At the end of 5 overs: India 23/0.
Dhawan off the mark with a boundary as India end the first over 5/0.
Both the Indian openers are out there in the middle. Shikhar Dhawan to take strike as Murali Vijay goes to the non-strikers end. Dale Steyn with the new ball.
Jacques Kallis leads South Africa onto the field amid warm applause and a guard of honour by some children.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat against South Africa in the second and final cricket Test at Kingsmead, here today.
Both the teams have made one change each in their teams from the Johannesburg Test, which ended in a thrilling draw.
India have replaced off-spinner R Ashwin with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja while the hosts have brought in left-arm spinner Robin Peterson in place of leg-break bowler Imran Tahir.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Mohammed Shami.
South Africa: Greame Smith (C), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jaques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
Preview:
Durban: After sharing the honours in a thrilling draw, India and South Africa will renew their exciting battle for supremacy in the series-deciding second and final cricket Test which promises to be another epic encounter starting here tomorrow.
India had more positives from drawn first Test: Cheteshwar Pujara
The opening Test between the number one (South Africa) and number two (India) turned out to be the most perfect advertisement for Test cricket giving five days of an engaging clash.
In the end, South Africa were left needing just eight runs for what would have been one of the most memorable Test wins of all time. India, on the other hand, were left wondering as to what turned the fortunes so drastically after four days of domination.
At Kingsmead, on Boxing Day, the two sides will go head-to-head in a decider that is more than just another five-day game.
Ever since this tour got embroiled in a battle between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket South Africa for off-field matters, it has been about bragging rights.
Seemingly both sides knew what to expect from this short tour, one that did no favours to the watching fans, sponsors or broadcasters. It was about gaining supremacy over the other, and indeed there was a certain path needed to be taken to achieve this.
For South Africa, it had to begin early. The three-ODI-series was where they could do some real damage because there weren't any practice games.
The Indian team flew in, fresh from an ever-lasting home season with little know-how to deal with conditions here. Not to mention, there was a lot to prove after the retirement of senior stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman over the past year. They had to be put on the back-foot immediately.
And so it happened. The number-five ranked ODI team handed out a 2-0 defeat to the number-one ranked side, a spanking really considering the huge margins of 141 runs and 136 runs in the two completed matches at Johannesburg and Durban.
Words like 'scared' and 'scarred' became part of the cricket dictionary. Virat Kohli's image of sticking ice-packs to his ribcage was telecast across the world. India were bruised and there was more headed their way.
Surprisingly, for the hosts, they stood up to this tough talk. Putting his hand up first was Kohli who swatted the Proteas' attack in the first innings at Wanderers, with a brilliant first hundred in this country.
The roles were reversed, for he sparked such an inspiration in his team-mates, who realised that they were collectively the world's second-best Test XI. Subsequently, the short bowling subsided and Team India dominated for four days of that match.
The number-one ranked Test side though couldn't be beaten, as they bounced back from near-defeat and rose up to near-victory in the span of three sessions on the last day. And so, the first match of this series came to be hailed as the greatest drawn Test ever.
Now, all of it boils down to what happens in Durban.
India have been meticulous in the way they have met with the daunting challenge this trip has been. A young team, out to take on the world, they have battled hard.
They realised early that the ODIs were a lost cause and instead used those games to steel themselves for the challenges ahead.
Despite two and a half days of competitive cricket washed away by unseasonal summer rains here, the batsmen knew which balls to leave and which to score off. The bowlers knew how to hit the right lengths, guided by the return of Zaheer Khan.
The visitors carry momentum into this second Test, especially with the way they strangled South Africa in that last hour's play, forcing them to call their world-record pursuit mere eight runs short of creating history.
If the hosts ought to be believed, all they wanted to do was save the Test and they succeeded. They wanted this chance to win the series, in this last encounter before Team India leaves.
Both teams have built themselves up for this contest in a manner befitting their dressing room environment. Even so, cricket always includes the uncertainty factor and there are doubts plaguing both sides.
For India, the major concern ahead of this Durban Test is the fatigue factor of their bowling attack. Zaheer, Mohammad Shami and Ishant Sharma did a majority of the work, with R Ashwin providing holding support.
With just three days in between these two games, are their frontline bowlers fit enough? Will the lone spinner play a more pivotal role now, at Kingsmead, wherein the pitch is supposed to have slowed down? These are the questions that the hosts would have to answer.
"There is a lot of bounce in this wicket that should keep both the batsmen and the bowlers interested," said curator Wilson Ngobese.
"Batting in the first hour of the mornings here should be challenging for there is always some moisture in the air to be exploited. Of course spin might come into play as the match progresses, more than what it did at Wanderers."
South Africa will not like that last sentence. The last Test they won at this ground, on this pitch, came nearly six years ago, when they beat West Indies by an innings and 100 runs in January 2008. Since then, the Proteas haven't won here in four Test matches.
What's more, in each of these four Tests, they have been bowled for under-200 in atleast one of the two innings. To add further concern, out of the 80 wickets they have lost in these four matches, 29 were taken by spinners.
That last bit gets highlighted when it is considered that South Africa isn't traditionally a suitable environment for spinners.
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