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Why youngsters should learn from Dale Steyn's performance yesterday |
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By: Sanjjeev K Samyal |
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Date:
2010-02-09 |
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Place: Nagpur |
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Dale Steyn's class act not only thrilled his South African teammates. It also provided a lesson for aspiring pace bowlers at the VCA bowling academy
For a young pace bowler there couldn't be better education than being at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium ground in Jamtha yesterday.
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Dale Steyn. pic/AFP | South Africa speedster Dale Steyn delivered an absolute masterclass as he more than lived up to his reputation of the best fast bowler in the world.
The biggest lesson was that conditions don't matter when you have real quality. Steyn made the VCA Stadium wicket look as though he was playing on a greentop at Kingsmead with Durban's wind behind him.
Lifeless track
On a lifeless track, where the Indian bowlers managed just six wickets in two days of the first Test, Steyn dismantled the Indian batting line-up with precision and hostility. The fast bowler took seven wickets for 57 runs to bowl out India for 233, a lead of 325 runs for South Africa. Following on, India were 66 for two. Not many were surprised by Steyn's super show. His presence in the Orange City had excited the pace wing of the Vidarbha Cricket Association Academy and coach Subroto Banerjee had all his bowlers in the stands to watch the world's premier fast bowler in action.
"There's no doubt, he's the world's best fast bowler at the moment. There cannot be any better education than to get to see a live performance of a world-class performer at his best," said Banerjee, the former India pacer who toured Australia in 1991-92.
"This performance is remarkable because Steyn was swinging the ball when there was nothing on offer in terms of conditions and the wicket as seen when India bowled," said another former India pacer Prashant Vaidya, the VCA academy's director.
"Apart from having a great run-up and action, what was most impressive was the way he worked on the batsmen and the areas he bowled to them," said Banerjee.
Two of his victims, Murali Vijay and Wriddhiman Saha, were bowled, shouldering arms and Sachin Tendulkar was drawn into edging a perfect out swinger to the 'keeper.
He may have lost his personal battle with Virender Sehwag in the first innings, but he made amends in the second by having him caught in the slips for 16.
Steyn rated the dismissals of Vijay and Tendulkar's as his best. "It's not that you just deliver such balls (in-coming delivery) straight in the match. To master it, I worked a lot in the nets. It is hugely satisfying when it (the plan) comes through in the match. I bowled two away swingers to set up Vijay before I bowled the in-swinger. About Tendulkar, I was not worried when he drove me because the ball was swinging and I knew if I got the ball to pitch in the right area there would be a risk of him edging the ball," said Steyn, revealing his plan of attack against India's top-order. "The ball he bowled to Tendulkar in the first innings was a dream delivery. It came after he had bowled Vijay with an in-swinger which meant Tendulkar had to be wary of which ball to leave," said Banerjee, whose main weapon during his playing days was the away swinger.
Walking the talk
On the eve of the series, Steyn had said reverse swing would be the key in India. He sure walked the talk yesterday. If in the first spell (7-2-24-2) he was incisive with the regular swing, he produced a devastating burst of reverse swing to finish off the Indian innings (3.4-2-3-5). "It was lethal stuff as he showed complete mastery of the art," said Banerjee. |
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