India stare at defeat in the first Test against South Africa

Dale Steyn ran in like a runaway steam engine on a railroad to hell and blew away the line-up that was meant to defend India’s newly-acquired status as the best Test side in the world. The robust South African paceman might have already reduced this battle for Test supremacy into a farce on Day Three of the first of the two Tests.

The wicket at the VCA stadium in Jamtha didn’t seem to hold any
devils when the Indian bowlers were in operation. Coach Gary Kirsten defended his spinners at the end of the second day, while skipper MS Dhoni said his quicks bowled their heart out.

There was nothing more the Indian bowlers could do on this ‘slow’ strip is what the team think-tank believed. Steyn made a mockery of the theories floating around on why the hosts managed just six wickets in the 176 overs. Steyn showed that raw pace, control over the new ball and ability to reverse the old ball can make life hell for batsmen even on wickets tuned to suit the spinners rather than the pacemen.

In this battle between the Indian spinners and the South African pacemen, Steyn delivered the sucker punch after tea in a spell in which he took five wickets in 22 balls for three runs as reverse swing exposed the defence of the Indian lower-order.

It wasn’t with just the older ball that Steyn (7 for 51) was dangerous. He struck telling blows by drawing Sachin Tendulkar forward with an outswinger and inducing an edge after Murali Vijay decided to leave a ball that cut back onto his stumps.

Morne Morkel’s first ball of the day was a beauty and Gautam Gambhir got a faint edge after committing to his stroke too early. For a while it looked like the opening hour of the third day’s play was played on a wicket dropped-down overnight from Durban.    
Virender Sehwag and S Badrinath steadied the innings with a 136-run partnership. Sehwag, aware that his loss also could trigger a further collapse, was careful with his shot selection. Instead of batting like he was behind the wheels of a Ferrari, he drove a Volkswagen. The runs flowed off his blade but he didn’t play like he had a mid-afternoon train to catch.

His first audacious shot was the unsuccessful reverse sweep against left-arm spinner Paul Harris when on 98. He soon reached a well-deserved hundred. But after hitting left-arm paceman Wayne Parnell for two consecutive boundaries, Sehwag got greedy. He chased a wide ball from Parnell and was caught in the deep on the off-side.

Badrinath overcame big-match nerves to notch up a half-century. He slowly but surely found his feet and had settled down nicely when Steyn triggered the purge. Badrinath was the first of Steyn’s five scalps after tea. Another debutant Wriddhiman Saha shouldered his arms to a ball that disturbed his wood work, while Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra were beaten by pace.

South Africa declared an aggressive intent when they decided to ask the hosts to follow-on. India were 325 runs behind when Sehwag and Gambhir walked into bat  but India’s most trusted pair departed early.

Sehwag drew inspiration from the miracle at Eden after stumps. At the same time VVS Laxman was indulging in some catching practice and feeling his hand, hoping to play the second Test and Rahul Dravid, of course isn’t here. India will have to find new heroes.