Practice-less India struggle against Steyn, Morkel on Day One

The visitors had not left their hotel in Johannesburg until 1100 hrs local time when the match was scheduled to get underway at 1030 hrs.

No optimism
That was the lack of optimism among players and Cricket South Africa (CSA) about the possibility of a Test match getting underway after 18 hours of non-stop downpour all through Wednesday night into yesterday morning. In fact, some journalists were even thinking of not visiting the picturesque SuperSport Park here.

Having arrived at the ground, the Indians went through basic fielding and bowling drills. However, they didn't have any batting practice for the second day in a row. So, the last time any of the Indian batsmen visited the nets was Tuesday.

Gotcha! South African pacer Dale Steyn (right) celebrates after dismissing India's VVS Laxman during the first day of the first Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion yesterday. Pic/AFP

At one stage, it felt like the Indians were not present ufffd either physically or mentally.

Analysing the first three dismissals that triggered the Indian downfall: Virender Sehwag swung his bat at a ball away outside off-stump and holed out to Hashim Amla at third-man; Gautam Gambhir survived most of the initial onslaught of short-pitch bowling from Morne Morkel (4-20) before edging a full, yet wide delivery to second slip; and veteran Rahul Dravid played back at a ball that was pitched up to get trapped leg-before.

Planned
Morkel said: "We ran up and did the basics right. It was a very nice feeling to get Virender Sehwag early. It was a planned dismissal. We knew that he has a tendency to swing at almost everything outside off-stump, so we specifically placed a third-man, and it worked."

Thereafter, Sachin Tendulkar rekindled memories of his century at Cape Town almost a decade and a half ago with a counter-attacking knock that saw him strike four glorious boundaries in the space of six deliveries. He swiftly moved to 36 having consumed only 33 deliveries, until he was trapped leg-before wicket by Dale Steyn (3-34).

Later, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni struck a few sixes in his unbeaten knock of 32 before stumps were drawn for the day.

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