When Mohammed Siraj knocked off Dane Piedt at the stroke of tea, the little crowd that had gathered at the Platinum Oval cheered out loud expecting to catch a glimpse of the Indian openers later in the day.
But heavy showers called the shots to limit the Day 3 action to 32.4 overs with South Africa A stranded at 294 for the loss of seven wickets; trailing by 51 runs.
After a delayed start, Ankit Rajpoot took full advantage of the overcast conditions to remove Rassie van der Dussen (22 off 91; two fours) and Rudi Second (47 off 108; seven fours).
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Dussen nicked a moving delivery to K.S. Bharat behind the stumps, while Second was caught by Prithvi Shaw at short mid-wicket.
The Proteas, pushed back due to the slow outfield and wet grass, limped to 250 with Senuran Muthusamy and Dwaine Pretorious trying their best to make a match out of the rain-hit day. The partnership only lasted 20 runs.
Off-spinner Jayant Yadav struck in the 82nd over to dismiss Pretorious (caught by Siraj at mid-off).
Yadav almost had another scalp, but Mayank Agarwal dropped Piedt at cover point (when he was yet to open his account).
Piedt (22 off 41; three fours, one six) tried to accelerate and even found the fence to inject life into the otherwise dull day. When he looked set for a few more, he fell to Siraj.
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Though the initial inspection in the morning had allowed an extra hour of play, the umpires called it a day around 4:30 pm.
Brief scores: South Africa A 294/7 (Z Hamza 93, S Erwee 58; A Rajpoot 2/42, M Siraj 2/58) trail India A 345 (H Vihari 148; D Olivier 6/63) by 51 runs.
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