With the second new ball, Morkel cleaned up India’s lower order and nailed Kohli to help his side eke out a slender 28-run lead. (Source: BCCI)
A spinner opening the bowling and pace bowlers skidding the ball low to get batsmen LBW is not what one expects in South Africa. Needless to say, these “subcontinental” conditions are not to the Proteas’ liking, as they expect conditions to cater to their strengths when they play India on home turf.
Speedster Morne Morkel made no secret of his frustration at the unresponsive pitch, which forced him to a hard toil in the sun. His four wickets in the Indian first innings were some of the most hard-earned of his career.
“I’ve played cricket here all my life, and I’ve never seen a wicket like this at SuperSport Park. It was really hard work. In the heat, with conditions really tough, it was right up there with one of the hardest spells I’ve bowled,” the tall paceman said after the third day’s play.
“It’s unheard of that a spinner bowls that amount of overs on the first day (Ravichandran Ashwin bowled 31 overs on Day 1). We even took the option to open in the over before lunch with a spinner (Sunday). There’s a very subcontinental feel to it. Tough scoring, tough to get people out. Luckily, we’ve got some experience of that in the bank. But they are not the conditions that we want here in South Africa.”
The lack of pace in the pitch has forced the hosts to come up with different game plans to get wickets, once the new ball wears off. “You’ve got a small little window with the new ball. I think the first hour in the mornings, the reason might be because it’s under covers overnight, but in the first hour the balls seems a little bit quicker off the deck. But after that, there’s actually been no pace in the wicket. So it’s important to come out with different sorts of game plans. You need to try a lot of things,” Morkel said.
Having said that, Jasprit Bumrah put the cat among the pigeons when he reduced the Proteas to 3/2 in the second innings, with both his victims anticipating the ball to bounce much higher than it did and getting caught in front. But Morkel said the same line of attack may not work for the hosts.
“Bumrah has got the perfect action for this sort of wicket. He is very skiddy. We’ve got our game plans. There’s a very fine line when you bowl to them. They are very good players when you attack the stumps. You can’t really attack middle stump, it’s too straight for them and they can take the game away. “