India skipper Virat Kohli celebrates after taking a catch at slips to dismiss SA batsman Quinton de Kock on Day One of the second Test at Centurion on Saturday. Pic/AP/PTI

It was that man Hardik Pandya again. He provided the inspiration while it was R Ashwin's perspiration that kept the visitors in the game on a strange first day's play at SuperSport Park on Saturday. All claims of a rock-hard surface seemed vastly exaggerated as a brown pitch afforded spin, even if slowly, on first day that ended with India picking up six wickets and South Africa getting only 269 on the board.