Unfortunate that we dropped Rohit's chance on Day 1: Linde

South Africa's debutant left-arm spinner George Linde on Saturday said it was unfortunate that they failed to latch onto the chance given by Indian opener Rohit Sharma, whose maiden double century put the hosts on a driver's seat in the third Test.

Rohit scored 212 and Ajinkya Rahane contributed 115 as India declared their first innings at 497 for 9. South Africa are 9 for 2 at close of play.

"Those catches they stick or they don't. Unfortunately, it wasn't our way, it was Rohit's. He played well, so well done to him," the rookie spinner said, referring to the catch that Zubayr Hamza dropped at forward short leg off his bowling when the opener was batting on 28.

"He (Rohit) played well. He gave us that one chance, it wasn't easy and after that he didn't give a chance," Linde said.

The 27-year-old, who was part of the touring South Africa A side to India last month, was alled up to replace the injured Keshav Maharaj.

Linde has impressed for his domestic team Cape Cobras with 160 wickets in first-class cricket to date, at an eye-catching average of 24.05, as well as scoring 1497 runs at 25.81.

But it's been a hard toil for Linde, who said he was a bit nervous to debut at such a short notice.

"It's been lessons to be honest. Also I didn't expect to play Test cricket. This year I didn't expect to come back to play the Test series. So when I got the call-up, I was quite nervous," Linde said.

"Luckily, I had a few days to just settle. And today few lessons learnt especially at the end."
Linde was heavily strapped in his legs and he said: "It's because I have been diving on it for about three times, so it's protected."