KL Rahul stood in as captain with Kohli ruled out by an upper back spasm, and top-scored with 50.
But South Africa’s quick bowlers had the better of the day at the Wanderers, with Marco Jansen taking 4-31 and Duanne Olivier and Kagiso Rabada three wickets each.
India were bowled out for 202 runs. South Africa was 35-1 at stumps and 167 runs behind. Aiden Markram was out lbw for 11 to Mohammed Shami, India’s best bowler of the series so far.
India leads the three-match series 1-0 after a 113-run win in the first test in Centurion last week. That boosted top-ranked India’s hopes of finally cracking South Africa and securing a first test series win in the country on its eighth tour.
But Kohli’s absence and the dominance of the South African quick bowlers on the opening day in Johannesburg dented those chances. R Ashwin spoke about India’s chances on Day 2.
“South Africa always batted first (in the past) and got in excess of 250 and dominated games. Maybe we are a bit short. But I still think we’ve got with our entire bowling arsenal available tomorrow. Fingers crossed. We can definitely make something out of this total,”