India Vs South Africa, 1st Test: Rohit Sharma-Mayank Agarwal pair breaks 22-year-old opening record

Visakhapatnam, Oct 3: India's new opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma shattered several milestones on day two of the opening Test against South Africa in Visakhapatnam.

Resuming India's innings from the overnight total of 202 for no loss on day two the duo first went on scoring the highest opening stand for India in Tests against South Africa and later went on posting the highest first-wicket partnership from both the teams. They even posted an unbeaten 300-run partnership and continued to pile up the miseries for the tourists.

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With their mammoth 317-run partnership, the duo claimed several records. Rohit was dismissed for 176 by Keshav Maharaj.

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It was the third occasion for India when the openers posted in excess of 300 in a Test innings.

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413 - Pankaj Roy-Vinoo Mankad v New Zealand, Chennai, 1956; 410 - Sehwag-Dravid v Pakistan, Lahore, 2006; 317 - Rohit-Mayank v South Africa, Vizag, 2019. It was only the fourteenth 300+ opening stand for any team.

Highest opening stand in India-SA Test

Rohit and Mayank surpassed the 23-year-old record of highest opening stand between India and South Africa in a Test match that was created in 1996-97. The previous best opening stand was 236 between South Africa's Gary Kirsten & Andrew Hudson in Kolkata Test in 1996/97 season.

Highest opening stand for India against SA

Earlier, the duo surpassed the highest opening partnership for India against South Africa. Before this game, a partnership of 218 between Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in Kanpur Test during 2004/05 season was the biggest opening stand for India.

The duo went on posting an opening total of 317 before Rohit was dismissed for 176 by Keshav Maharaj.

They missed out on breaking the 71-year-old record of biggest opening stand against South Africa. England's Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook hold the record for the highest opening stand against Proteas. They scored 359 runs at Johannesburg on December 24, 1948.

Highest opening stands by debut opening pairs

Rohit and Mayank entered their name in record books with the second-highest debut opening stand in Test Cricket. They are now second on the list after Virnder Sehwag and Rahul Dravid's 410 against Pakistan in 2006.

410 - Sehwag-Dravid, 2006

317 - Rohit-Mayank, 2019

289 - Vijay-Dhawan, 2013

276 - C Dempster-J Mills, 1930

260 - B Mitchell-J Siedle, 1931

254 - Gayle-Powell, 2012