Dale Steyn ripped the heart out of India to leave South Africa on the verge of a great victory in the first test at Nagpur.
Beginning the day on 25/0 India would have been hoping for a solid start. The loss of Gautam Gambhir early started the rot, and Vijay and Tendulkar departed soon after. At 56/3 India were in trouble, and it took a 136 run partnership between Virender Sehwag and Subramaniam Badrinath to resurrect the innings.
Sehwag played a patient innings, and didn’t even go after South African spinner Paul Harris. It was his 18th test century, and very un-Sehwag like. Maybe that’s what led to his downfall, and his wicket sparked the innings collapse.
It was the Dale Steyn show after that, he produced a superb spell of reverse swing bowling and had a spell of 3.4-2-1-5. Once again he showed he can get out top-order batsmen, but just as importantly can finish off the tail with deadly accuracy and efficiency.
Steyn eventually ended up with career best inning’s figures of 16.4-6-51-7.
Interestingly Graeme Smith chose to make India follow on. Maybe he felt his bowlers had the momentum. In hot,humid conditions I’d have been tempted to give my bowlers a rest and perhaps bat quickly and ensure India had to play on a crumbling pitch for day’s 4 and 5.
Smith’s decision was justified with the early wickets of Gambhir and Sehwag. Morne Morkel claimed Gambhir who made an error of judgement trying to leave a ball, and then Steyn worked Sehwag over beautifully before enticing the edge.
Vijay and Tendulkar successfully negotiated the remainder of the day to leave India 66/2, still some 259 runs short of making South Africa bat again.
The day belonged to Dale Steyn however. He carries the South African attack. If he fails to fire, South Africa do poorly. It’s a large responsibility, but one he has coped tremendously well with over the last few years.
Steyn has been working on adding to his repertoire for the flat, slow pitches of the sub-continent, which includes an off-cutter with the reverse swinging ball.
After day 3 he said, “Reverse-swing is a major key on these pitches because there’s not a lot of sideways movement. You really rely on what you do through the air and I’ve been working a lot in the nets on swinging the ball. It’s a skill you must have in your armoury. You’re not going to get assistance from the deck, so you have to rely on skill.”
He worked out the Indian batsmen superbly and had this to say about his bowling spell. “I think my best wickets were Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar because I worked them out nicely. For Vijay, I bowled him two going away and then brought one back and to see him shouldering arms was really nice. I knew against Sachin that if I pitched it up, I could get driven but there was also the chance of an edge. I didn’t really mind being driven down the ground for four and I took the risk of pitching it up again,” said Steyn.
Day 4 represents a great chance for South Africa to claim victory. Tendulkar and Dhoni are the key, snare them early and India will crumble. If they bat long, South Africa may tire and have to chase a small target in the fourth innings.
