The great players in the game are known by their contribution to their team’s wins and Dale Steyn is bidding fair to be reckoned as one of the great players in the game with another fine burst of pace and hostility that has given his team a super chance of putting it across India in the second Test.
Batsmen are invariably recognized for the hundreds they score and bowlers for the five wicket hauls that they get and Steyn is well on his way in that respect too. Of course it is early days yet and a sustained and consistent performance over the years will establish him as one of the game’s greats. Fast bowlers are by the very nature of their work more prone to injuries than anybody else and that’s what Steyn will have to watch out for over the years.
He was assisted in his demolition of India’s batting by the vastly underappreciated Makhaya Ntini who bowled a couple of beauties to get rid off Jaffer and then V.V.S. Laxman. Jaffer was well taken at slip by Graeme Smith off a delivery that left him and Laxman shouldered arms to a ball bowled wide off the crease and lost his bails.
The best delivery of the innings was to Dravid. To have a batsman of Dravid’s caliber squared up and then losing his off stump is no easy task and that ball would have done even the best of batsmen of any era. The absence of Tendulkar was felt at this stage for despite all those who always question his contribution to the team, the dressing room has a sense of comfort and well being when he is there. He was not replaced by a batsman but by Irfan Pathan who batted well enough but had nobody to stay with him to try and take India to a total of respectability.
India too had three seam bowlers but they did not have the extra pace that the Proteas bowlers had and though the ball did swing it wasn’t enough to trouble them. There will invariably be talk about the ball used but that’s like a poor craftsman blaming his tools rather than his own skills. Smith and his batsmen knew that their bowlers had given them a splendid chance to establish a stronghold over the hosts and were in no hurry whatsoever.
The opening partnership itself went past India’s total and though there was nothing to excite the crowd the application shown by the batsmen was admirable. The applause from the dressing room is more valued always by players and that’s what the Proteas batsmen were looking for. Kallis who had an ordinary game at Chennai is looking solid and De Villiers who is more of a limited overs specialist also has set his tent for a big score. Harbhajan was the one bowler who had to be watched and unless the other bowlers raise the bar, the game will slip out of India’s hands, if it hasn’t already.
