Steyn's best leaves South Africa on top
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Those 22 yards never mattered less. With one of the most lethal and joyful spells of pace and swing seen in India, a red-hot Dale Steyn took the pitch out of the equation and led South Africa to the verge of what should be close to their finest Test victory. He took out two in the morning with conventional swing, and followed it up after tea with a spell of 3.4-2-3-5 with the old ball. The momentum created was too much to not enforce a follow-on, and Steyn had enough fuel in him to come back and dismiss Virender Sehwag, the only batsman who troubled South Africa in the first innings, according to website cricinfo.
Sehwag, whose century was remarkable for its restraint, will rue his unremarkable first-innings dismissal. He had revived India from 56 for 3 but, when he lobbed a full and wide delivery from Wayne Parnell straight to sweeper-cover, he kick-started a collapse of seven wickets for 41 runs.
In the lead-up to the Test, Steyn had famously said, "A 150 or 145km yorker is absolutely no different whether you bowl it here in Nagpur, or Chennai, Johannesburg, Perth." Turns out even if Steyn is not bowling yorkers, but swinging it accurately at a healthy pace, and if it all comes together in one spell, the pitch matters little.
It all started with the sighter from hell from his friend and new-ball partner, Morne Morkel. Gautam Gambhir could consider himself unlucky for getting this delivery first up: back of a length, couldn't get forward, couldn't go back, 145ks, angling into him, making him commit, and then leaving him enough to kiss the outside edge. In the second innings, Gambhir would shoulder arms to a similar delivery, and it would jag in and kiss the outside edge of the off stump. Three balls from Morkel, zero runs, out twice. When it's not your day, it's probably not your evening either.
In between those two wickets there was Steyn. Consistent outswing in his first spell kept Sehwag quiet, and when he got M Vijay on strike it was time for some breakfast. Ball one: full, swinging away, defended by Vijay off the back foot, in front of his body. Ball two: Steyn goes a foot wider, the wrist goes outside of the ball, Vijay shoulders arms, and the inswinger pegs back the prone off stump.
Sachin Tendulkar was going to be tougher to get, but got he was. He came forward and off-drove an outswinger for four. End of over. The first ball of the next over was similar, elicited a similar shot, but was about a foot shorter, which meant Tendulkar wasn't close enough to it, hence the edge.
Stumps India 233 (Sehwag 109, Badrinath 56, Steyn 7-51) and (f/o) 62 for 2 trail South Africa 558 for 6 dec by 259 runs.
Sehwag, whose century was remarkable for its restraint, will rue his unremarkable first-innings dismissal. He had revived India from 56 for 3 but, when he lobbed a full and wide delivery from Wayne Parnell straight to sweeper-cover, he kick-started a collapse of seven wickets for 41 runs.
In the lead-up to the Test, Steyn had famously said, "A 150 or 145km yorker is absolutely no different whether you bowl it here in Nagpur, or Chennai, Johannesburg, Perth." Turns out even if Steyn is not bowling yorkers, but swinging it accurately at a healthy pace, and if it all comes together in one spell, the pitch matters little.
It all started with the sighter from hell from his friend and new-ball partner, Morne Morkel. Gautam Gambhir could consider himself unlucky for getting this delivery first up: back of a length, couldn't get forward, couldn't go back, 145ks, angling into him, making him commit, and then leaving him enough to kiss the outside edge. In the second innings, Gambhir would shoulder arms to a similar delivery, and it would jag in and kiss the outside edge of the off stump. Three balls from Morkel, zero runs, out twice. When it's not your day, it's probably not your evening either.
In between those two wickets there was Steyn. Consistent outswing in his first spell kept Sehwag quiet, and when he got M Vijay on strike it was time for some breakfast. Ball one: full, swinging away, defended by Vijay off the back foot, in front of his body. Ball two: Steyn goes a foot wider, the wrist goes outside of the ball, Vijay shoulders arms, and the inswinger pegs back the prone off stump.
Sachin Tendulkar was going to be tougher to get, but got he was. He came forward and off-drove an outswinger for four. End of over. The first ball of the next over was similar, elicited a similar shot, but was about a foot shorter, which meant Tendulkar wasn't close enough to it, hence the edge.
Stumps India 233 (Sehwag 109, Badrinath 56, Steyn 7-51) and (f/o) 62 for 2 trail South Africa 558 for 6 dec by 259 runs.