Johannesburg: Former South African pace legend and current bowling coach Allan Donald yesterday compared Virat Kohli's century with Sachin Tendulkar, who had similarly counter-attacked the Proteas attack during a Test match in Cape Town back in 1996.
"The one word that comes to my mind is responsibility," he said, talking about the India's new No 4.
"He (Kohli) showed great discipline and responsibility. It reminded me of Sachin Tendulkar when they came here in 1996. I was the first one to say back in 1996 that India didn't have much bottle. One person jumped out and played for the situation, played for his team, and that was Tendulkar.
That's what came to my mind when I saw Kohli batting," Donald told mediapersons here today.
Donald explained that Kohli's ability to punish the loose balls when required.
"The way Kohli left the ball and when we were slightly off the line he punished the ball. He paced his innings very, very well. He put up his hand yesterday and showed real fight andhe was tight and didn't give much away until the end."
The coach did say that he wasn't very happy with performance of his bowlers although he claims that South Africa is very much in control.
"At the same time, we were slightly wide and short, probably the widest I have seen outside the off-stump, because the ball was swinging. But the game never really drifted away from us. They are five down, and I will take it," he added.
Donald did agree that Indian batsmen showed a lot of patience early in their innings.
"It's a mixture of things, having India in trouble early on. Then, it became sloppy in patches as the day went on.
India showed a lot of patience, and left the ball really well today. They also played Imran Tahir very well.
"They have learnt from past matches here, and also we needed to find the right areas with the ball. We could have done it better and it was a tough Test match cricket yesterday," he said.
