South Africa Vs India First Test Day Three – India De-Steyned For Defeat? | iplt20news

South Africa Vs India First Test Day Three – India De-Steyned For Defeat?

Posted on February 13, 2010 | 0 views

Sorry this post was supposed to come out yesterday but we lost power all night and this is the first chance I got to publish it. Full review coming up shortly…

After dominating three days of Test cricket, South Africa look all set to improve upon their fairly good record in India. Of the previous ten tests they have played in India, they have won 4, lost 4 and drawn 2 (white washing a previous two test series 2-0!) which is about as good a record as any visiting team has had in India over the past fifteen years. If the first day belonged to Jacques Kallis and the second to Hashim Amla, then the third most certainly belonged to Dale Steyn, whose devastating display of pace bowling saw him pick eight wickets in the day, including a career best 7/51. Four of those seven were bowled, one caught plumb in front, all in a deadly spell of bowling that read 3.4 – 2 – 3 – 5, and hastened the completion of India’s first innings, bowled out for 233, trailing by 325 runs.

It didn’t look that bad at tea when India were 221/4 and the game seemed delicately poised, though still in the Saffer’s favor. Then Paul Harris produced the most threatening ball bowled by a spinner in three days. Bowling over the wicket to Dhoni, Harris got a ball to pitch in the rough created by the fast bowlers’ follow through, from where it shot up and turned sharply to glance Dhoni’s glove on its way to Kallis. Dhoni, who wanted nothing to do with a ball pitching that far outside his leg stump, walked immediately looking annoyed and maybe surprised that Harris had managed to get the ball the spin so viciously. It opened the door and Steyn didn’t need a second invitation. Seven overs later, India were bowled out. By the close of play, both openers had also been dismissed putting the game firmly in South Africa’s grasp.

From an Indian perspective, it was probably a disappointing day but one which you didn’t mind too much considering the quality of fast bowling on display. Rarely has a fast bowler wrecked our line-up at home with such deadly and persistent accuracy. I can remember a few occasions, none more vividly than when Walsh and Ambrose on their last tour leveled the test series as we chased a modest target. Today, the only two batsmen whom you could have blamed for throwing their wickets away are the two who made sure we didn’t despair to far greater depths of humiliation.

Sehwag played among his best “controlled” innings to score a brilliant century but soon after lost his concentration and chased a wide delivery to gift Wayne Parnell a wicket. Infuriatingly, in the second innings he drove rather ambitiously to a full pitched classic outswinger from Steyn and edged straight to Smith. The show of delight by all the Saffers showed just how much his wicket meant to them, prior to the tour Steyn had said Sehwag would be the most difficult batsman to bowl to. With him gone, so too did any hope India had of counter-attacking and from here it will largely be an effort to try and bat until tea of the fifth day.

The only time India really seemed to be showing signs of putting up a worthwhile resistance was when Sehwag was joined by debutant Subramaniam Badrinath, who played a composed and mature innings of 56 to justify the confidence the selectors had placed in him. While he was lucky to face the end of the opening bowlers’ spells and edged Steyn early between the slips and gully for four early on, he grew in confidence and played a gritty test knock that should inspire some confidence ahead of the arduous task in the second innings. Having done all the hard work he then threw away his wicket in the softest of manners, almost lazily flicking the ball straight to midwicket. Considering how well Steyn was bowling by that stage, you have to wonder if it just hastened the inevitable.

At stumps Sachin Tendulkar and Murali Vijay looked reasonably well set, but it remains to be seen how they handle the quality fast bowling on the “cold” pitch first thing in the morning. Both were done in by gems from Steyn in the first session, Tendulkar probably received the ball of the innings, a fast full outswinger that he had to play at. Gambhir fell to Morne Morkel twice in the day and like Vijay earlier, misjudged a leave on his offstump, perhaps because of the angle created by Morne bowling round the wicket. At the end of the day, India probably could have done better had Sehwag and Badrinath exercised a little more caution, but when the best bowler in the world was bowling as well as he was you’d have to say the Saffers were always going to get a huge first innings lead.