It was a contrasting opening day for two of India’s leading players at Eden Gardens in the first Test match between India and South Africa, and Dale Steyn explained how well they fared. Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah produced a five-wicket haul to help defeat South Africa for 159 and put the hosts in the box seat on the first day of the opening Test at Eden Gardens on Friday. While his and Kuldeep Yadav’s spells were the highlight, Mohammed Siraj also had an interesting arc, having started the day poorly but came back with the old ball to pick up two wickets in one over.
Speaking to JioHotstar after today’s play, former South African speedster Steyn spoke about Bumrah’s craft and Siraj’s heart.
About Bumrah, he said: “He was the blueprint for the day of how he bowled, not just based on the wicket he took. Obviously he was outstanding in terms of taking his five balls, but if you watch the areas he bowled and how he bowled, that’s how I think South Africans should start looking at their bowling themselves. He hit the deck with real power, didn’t bowl many half-balls, or any soft deliveries. He targeted his stumps well, gave away very few, runs that were scored off him, almost at Third man, so it’s like a scheme that I think as a fast bowler, if you want to be successful on that particular combination, you have to follow that, and if you do that, I mean, you’ll get similar rewards to the way he took five In fact, Bumrah was miserly in his bowling as he conceded just 1.92 runs on his way to a 16th-place finish with five for in Test cricket.
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Former India captain Anil Kumble agreed with Steyn’s assessment. “Steyn is absolutely right about understanding the lines to bowl and the lengths to bowl on a wicket like this… The quicker you understand that, the easier it becomes for the bowler,” the legendary leg-spinner added. “I’m sure Bumrah, in that first over, realized that this is not a wicket where you can swing, there wasn’t much of that. We expected the ball to swing a lot early in the day, but that didn’t happen. So he realized that, look, you need to hit the deck and then keep changing the lengths and that’s exactly what he did. He never gave a single chance to the bat to go against what Jasprit was doing, and it was very difficult for the batsman. I think they can get boundaries, easy boundaries or easy runs, and that’s something he did; he controlled The match and control the pace of the batsman as well and when you do that, when you put that doubt in the mind of the batsman, it is very difficult to get past that with Bumrah.
India’s Kuldeep Yadav congratulates Jasprit Bumrah after the pacer took the wicket of the South African on the first day of the Kolkata Test at Eden Gardens. (Quick photo by Partha Paul)
Bumrah’s lengths were key, and the natural variation on the pitch also helped. Steyn said: “He makes this ball move nicely and glide, almost hitting the bottom of the bats. Even when he hits a very powerful distance, it doesn’t go past the stumps. However, when you hit the stumps, you think the batsmen can make a good move and get off on some runs, but that’s not the case, because he also hits you fast, 145-140 kilometers per hour. He’s really fast.”
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But on the other hand, even when he was not having his best day, Siraj showed why he is one of the most formidable figures in the Indian dressing room as he made two runs in one when he got into his rhythm later in the day. Compare Steyn to the way he went about the English summer recently, bowling like a machine through five Tests.
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“It’s all about the heart; the guy doesn’t stop. You know, he just keeps going,” Stein said. “And when his captain bowls him, he seems to deliver it, and just runs without stopping. He bowls these long overs. You know, up to 8 overs, 9 overs. I’ve seen him do that before. And he seems to deliver the ball every time. And depending on the conditions, he’s able to adapt. In the UK, he swung the ball beautifully. He waited his turn. I mean, he bowled in all those Test matches and bowled beautifully, and the wicket can make a lot of bowlers very desperate, You know if it doesn’t go your way, you start looking, but he waited and it came good for him in that game and the same thing happened in this game, where there wasn’t a lot of movement up and down, and then he came back and bowled from this side here, and he got two wickets which stands for me a lot of the time.
(Tags for translation)India vs. South Africa Test Day 1
