LUNCH REPORT: Stubborn Proteas continue quest to avoid defeat

South Africa continued to stonewall the Indian bowlers to post 94/3 at lunch on the final day of the fourth cricket Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi on Monday.

AB de Villiers and Faf du Plesis were in the middle for South Africa at lunch. De Villers was batting on 26 while du Plesis was on 2.

Du Plesis took 53 deliveries to open his account. He is now third on the list of batsmen consuming most number of balls before opening their account.

England's John Murray (80 deliveries) holds the record in this dubious category which came against Australia in the Ashes series of 1962.

England's Stuart Broad is second on the list with 62 balls which came against New Zealand in 2013. Grant Flower of Zimbabwe is fourth with 51 balls. He achieved the feat in 2000 against New Zealand.

Du Plesis had negotiated 61 balls at the break while de Villiers had consumed 203 deliveries.

South Africa scored their 94 runs from 107 overs.

Left-armer Ravindra Jadeja gave the hosts their only success in the morning session, having dismissed visiting captain Hashim Amla for figures of 1/10.

Jadeja has bowled 16 consecutive maiden overs in the second. He is five maiden overs from equalling the all-time record of former India spnner Bapu Nadkarni.

India skipper Virat Kohli has used eight bowlers including himself in an attempt to dislodge the Proteas batsmen, but has met with little success till now.

The Kotla pitch has become slow and has lost most of its bounce which is affording the visitors more time to read the deliveries and play their shots.

Resuming on the overnight score of 72/2, South Africa batsmen de Villiers and Amla continued their efforts to deny a victory to the hosts.

Jadeja knocked back Amla’s off-stump to revive hopes of an Indian victory. However, du Plesis joined de Villiers in the middle and the duo ensured that the visitors did not lose any more wickets till lunch.