India's dream start, and Amla's early dismissals

Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck with the third ball of the series, and then struck again in each of his next two overs, providing India with one of their best starts ever in an overseas series. It was the earliest wicket for India on tour since Kapil Dev dismissed Jimmy Cook off the first ball of the first Test in the 1992-93 series in Durban.

Bhuvneshwar is also only the third bowler to take three wickets in the first three overs of an overseas series since 2001. The two other instances were against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh: James Franklin achieved it against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2005, while Pat Cummins took three against Bangladesh last year.

Those three wickets had South Africa struggling at 12 for 3, the second-lowest score at which India have taken three wickets in the first innings of a series outside Asia. The only instance of a lower such score was also against South Africa, in the 2006-07 series, when the home team slumped to 5 for 3 in Johannesburg.

The Amla dismissals

The last couple of years haven't been the greatest ones in Hashim Amla's illustrious career. He has still averaged a healthy 46.63 since the start of 2016, but against the better bowling teams - Australia, England, India and New Zealand - it drops a bit further to 42.44. (He hasn't played against Pakistan during this period.) Those are still reasonable numbers, but they pale when compared to an average of 65.62 in his golden five-year period between January 2010 and December 2014.

What is also noticeable is the manner in which his dismissal patterns have changed against pace over the last couple of years. In the 2013-14 period, he tended to get out bowled and lbw pretty often - those modes accounted for more than 50% of his dismissals against fast bowlers during this period. Since 2016, that has dropped to about 25%, perhaps due to a conscious decision to stay legside of the ball.

However, while the bowled and lbw dismissals have reduced, he has been caught behind the wicket - by the keeper and the slip cordon - far more often now: that percentage is up from 25% to 44%. That was the mode of dismissal again on the first day in Cape Town, when he played a loose shot away from the body and nicked it to Wriddhiman Saha to have South Africa tottering at 12 for 3.

* Includes catches by the wicketkeeper and the slip cordon

Amla's recent numbers show another trend - the tendency to start a series poorly. In his last 18 innings in the first Test of a series, he has averaged 24.17; in his previous 52 such innings, he averaged 70.42.

* Includes one-off Tests