The Virat Kohli-led team were busy at the Newlands Stadium nets on Wednesday, for the much-awaited series against South Africa, the hosts managed to avoid a huge embarrassment involving the Indian national flag.

The Newlands Stadium management was quick after some of the ground personnel corrected the faux pas they made while hoisting the Tricolor. According to the norm during any tour, the Indian national flag was hoisted just to the right of the press box of the stadium alongside the flags of South Africa and CSA.

To everyone’s shock, the tricolor was first hoisted upside down and was seen waving with the green side up which is clearly visible on the backdrop of the table top mountain that overlooks the stadium. The flag was fluttering for the earlier part of the Indian team training.

The curator of the Newlands Stadium, Evan Flint did not wait for anyone else to rectify the mistake. He was seen bringing down the Tricolor and hoisting it again in a proper manner. This is not the first instance that has happened. A similar incident took place during the Durban test match in 2007 series when the Tricolor was seen fluttering upside down on the first day of the test match.

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Team India have won nine successive series to climb to the top of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) rankings, but all in friendly or home conditions. South Africa has prepared ‘green top’ wickets for the Tests in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. Indians, in any case, have traditionally struggled against the home bowling attack with just two victories in 17 Tests in South Africa.

The much-awaited India vs South Africa Test series kicked off at Newlands, Cape Town with a brilliant start by the visiting Pacers. After winning the toss, du Plessis decided to bat first and it seemed like the decision of the captain was wrong as the hosts had a disastrous start at Bhuvaneshwar Kumar ripped through the top order Elgar and Markham and Hashim Amla. The score was reduced to 12/3 in just half an hour of play.

Then, ABD and du Plessis built a much-needed partnership and stitched 114 runs. However, South Africa staged a brilliant recovery to post 286 in their first innings. Soon, the Indian innings followed but in vain. One of the world’s greatest (Dale Steyn), fastest (Rabada), Philander and tallest (Morkel) pacers went on expected lines.

Of the 12 wickets that fell on day-1, the speedsters took 10. Though the South Africans didn’t get to bowl many overs, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who stood out for his incisiveness. After Bhuvneshwar’s magic with the new ball (4/87) limited South Africa to 286, the cherry changed hands and so did the control of the game.

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