India laboured to 208 for eight when bad light and rain halted the final session's play on the first day of the opening Test against South Africa here on Tuesday.
The elemental adversity stopped the play after 59 overs on a day that also saw a delayed toss due to wet patches on the field.
South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada rocked India with a five-wicket haul (5/44) as the visitors hung on for dear life through an unbeateKagiso Rabada bowled two of the most intimidating and incisive spells witnessed in recent times to completely rock the Indian batting line-up, which struggled to 176 for 7 at tea on the opening day of the first Test against South Africa here Tuesday.
One of the finest fast bowlers in contemporary cricket, Rabada (5/41 in 15 overs) bowled an absolute peach to dismiss Virat Kohli (38 off 64 balls) with the old ball after having bounced out Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (5) in his first spell.
In between, Shreyas Iyer (31 off 50 balls), who lived dangerously, got a shooter that completely exposed his defence.
Rabada's 14th five-wicket haul in Tests also comprised the scalp of Ravichandran Ashwin, who was completely rocked by extra bounce, and Shardul Thakur (24), who after a gutsy effort was softened by a bouncer and then taken out with a length delivery.
KL Rahul (33 batting) looked solid but is slowly running out of partners as a first innings score of 250 looks a distant reality now.
Rabada, who was given a break from white ball leg, didn't need time to hit the rhythm as he bowled long spells, got a disconcerting bounce along with late swing that had the Indian batters in complete tangle.
The manner in which Kohli was forced into making a mistake was an education for young pacers.
Rabada bowled a couple of incoming deliveries to peg him on the backfoot and then unleashed his lethal weapon.
He made a nearly 31-over-old Kookaburra to move in and kept it on fuller length as Kohli shaped himself to play inside the line of the delivery.
But to his amazement, the ball pitched and deviated late to take the outside edge en route to keeper Kyle Verreynne's hands.
Kohli got a massive reprieve in the first session when he was on four as Tony de Zorzi dropped a dolly at square leg off debutant Nandre Burger (2/39) but he then carried out the repair work with Iyer.
At the toss, Temba Bavuma took the expected decision of bowling first and his bowlers did make best use of the conditions during that first hour.
The steep tennis-ball like bounce was always going to create problems for the star-studded Indian line-up which for the last six months has played only white ball formats.
The compulsive puller that Rohit is, his opposite number Bavuma stationed a long leg like all international skippers deploy across formats.
