Blame Steyn for the pain Print E-mail
Category: Shorts
Written by Luke Tagg   
Monday, 08 February 2010 14:53
Dale Steyn took his best ever bowling figures to rout India in Nagpur and if ever there was any doubt as to who the world's premier fast bowler is, look no further.

Sorry, Ricky - as fine as your guys are, I'll take Steyn any day. It doesn't get better than this.

Steyn's 7/51 was followed up with 1/14 after India was asked to follow on and it was the most important wicket of the lot - Virender Sehwag, who was the only Indian batsman to thrive in the first innings (109 off 139 balls).

The Test match is all but over now - India are still 259 runs behind and both openers are gone. It would require a massive batting effort to see off the deficit and build a lead that could threaten South Africa.

If Viru was still there it would be possible. If Dale Steyn was dead it would be possible. Neither is the truth, however, unfortunately for India.

What makes Steyn's performance even more impressive is the fact that the pitch holds very few demons for batsmen. There is some swing and some lateral movement but it's a good Test wicket - just ask Hashim Amla, whose 253* was 20 runs more than the entire Indian side managed in their first innings.

Steyn got his first two wickets with conventional outswing but came back after tea with vicious reverse swing which none of the Indian lower order had any answer for.

You might as well have asked them to solve the Riemann hypothesis, a conjecture about the distribution of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function which states that all non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function have real part 1/2.

Put that one to Bhajji and he'll have an easier time trying to work it out than how to play Steyn's late reverse swing, is my promise to you.

Steyn's spell of 3.4-2-1-5 after tea was one of the finest episodes of fast bowling I have ever witnessed - the man was unplayable.

Don't blame the Indian batsmen - blame Steyn.
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