Kingsmead Test: Dale Steyn leaves http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in tatters, Blues recovering as Zaheer Khan strikes
India’s batting woes continued as none of their batsmen managed to make headway against a quality South African pace attack. The conditions were quite unforgiving as well, the pitch was green and pacy, the Indians were playing under overcast conditions and
Steyn led the bowling attack. This is what awaited the Indian batting line up as they came in to bat on Sunday at Kingsmead. Even though their response was somewhat marginally better than what they managed at Centurion in the first Test, they could simply
not hold up against the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn. Many of the batsmen made decent starts however failed to capitalize on the starts they had made succumbing to the opposition either as a result of playing poor shots or due to unplayable deliveries.
All the batsmen reached double figures however the highest score amongst their batsmen was the 38 runs scored by a certain VVS Laxman. While talk was rife about possibly replacing Tsotsobe with Parnell, the former bowled beautifully and took the prized wicket
of the little master Sachin Tendulkar bowling a delivery that angled across nicking the edge of the bat to second slip.
He also took another crucial wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara who tried to dispatch a short ball to square leg, caught the top edge which went straight over to Boucher. The ball was jagging around prodigiously like a fly, giving the openers and the batsmen a
rather tough time. Sehwag however was unperturbed as he hit the ball all over the ground for boundaries. Steyn was persistent, bowling consistently outside off stump with his beautiful out swing. One such out swinger claimed Sehwag and thus the South Africans
set the pace for the innings. At the end of it, they certainly came out on top as Steyn soon after the departure of Sehwag got the better of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid and VVS Laxman then tried to consolidate the Indian innings however they weren’t particularly successful in making a strong partnership. The duration they managed to stay on the crease was sporadically spread over a period of run scoring and
a period of total calm. Steyn struck once again to break this invaluable partnership between laxman and Dravid who nicked an out swinger to the keeper.
Interestingly enough, Steyn has managed to take 43 wickets against India, which has to be the most wickets he has taken against any opposition. He has managed to take these wickets at an average of 18.95. Rahul Dravid has averaged an unimpressive 32.55 against
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 2005.
All in all, it was a good performance from the South African bowlers. However, India are well equipped in the bowling department with the inclusion of Zaheer Khan who has performed considerably well for his team. It was expected that Harbajhan Singh and
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 would put forward some resistance however even they could not offer much resistance. India found themselves out for 205 runs playing only 65.1 overs.
In comparison, South Africa have also made a rather shaky start to the match with the early departure of Graeme Smith off Zaheer Khan. Smith attempted to play a defensive shot which caught the outside edge of the bat and he found himself out after playing
just 11 deliveries and scoring 9 runs. Alviro Petersen was dismissed by Zaheer Khan, bowled after the ball touched the pad flap and clipped the leg stump. It was a rather unlucky dismissal. Jacques Kallis was the next to depart as Amla hit a shot straight
down the pitch which clipped the finger tips of Sharma and on to the stumps. Kallis was well outside his crease.
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