India vs South Africa: First Test, Day 4

It’s a dog’s day out there.

India needs to have strong bench strength. Even the 46th Test Century by Sachin Tendulkar couldn’t stop the middle order from committing hara-kiri.

Secondly, India needs a permanent bowling coach, and now! Otherwise for MS Dhoni, his first loss in a Test match as a captain in 12 months would haunt him for the rest of the year.

One doesn’t see very often an Indian cricket team outclassed, outshone and undone within four days of a Test match – that too at home. Not too many teams visit the subcontinent hoping to take 20 wickets in a Test match. But that dream didn’t remain just a dream for Dale Steyn and company.

Steyn led with speed, with swing. With no Dravid, Laxman, the famous middle-order suddenly became brittle. The battle was lost on the first day when the South African batting came good and India lost the momentum after pinning them down to 6/2. The fear of a feather like middle order was perhaps running in the back of MSD’s mind, and unconsciously the rest of his colleagues succumbed to that fear.

There isn’t any doubt in my mind that India will have some tough time in this transition period, where a strong bench strength would have helped but couldn’t be visualised in sharp focus in the horizon. I am hopeful that some great talents will be groomed and thrown into the challenge in the days to come. But I was surprised when the selectors decided the series against South Africa to be the experimenting playground. Rather, could we have done the experimentation in the Bangladesh series while resting our jewels for the much touted World Championship of cricket? Just a thought!

South Africa, on the other hand, threw in whatever they had in the first Test. Kallis and Amla showed grit and determination. Steyn then taught the Indians how to bowl fast on a dead wicket – enough rough patches to help the spinners. His match figures of 10/108 showed why he is regarded so high in the world (and why he is one of the stars of The Royal Challengers).

Along with the batting problems, the bowling department is another area where the Indian thinktank should immediately concentrate. Apart from Zaheer, the sting is missing from the other Indian bowlers. At this stage, where they play international level cricket almost every other day, coaching surely doesn’t help the senior cricketers. But specialist bowling coaches doesn’t waste time coaching the 40-Test old bowlers. They bring about certain changes, freshness in approach, smalls tweaks and adjustments in techniques and most importantly the mental strength and ability to bounce back after a bad day at office. India surely has one, but Eric Simons is reportedly on a short term assignment appointed very recently. So if anything positive has to come out, the outcome will be visible only after two to three months if not more.

But by that time, India would have lost more than what at stake currently. Sachin batted with exuberance, got to his Test century number 46, but perhaps the fear and the pressure of doing well was telling on him. Otherwise, how would you explain his irrational shot just after reaching the milestone? Losing Sachin broke India’s ability to fight out deficit inside their mind.

The battle and match was lost at that point. Steyn and company were just finishing a formality thereafter.

Brief Scores:

South Africa (1st Innings): 558/6 declared
India (1st Innings): 233 (Sehwag 109, Badrinath 56, Steyn 7/51)
India (2nd Innings): 319 (Sachin Tendulkar 100, Steyn 3/57, Paul Harris 3/76)

South Africa wins by an inning and six runs