South Africa used the first opportunity to bring its entire bowling department into Test-mode on the first day of the two-day warm-up game against the Board President’s XI at the Brabourne Stadium on Friday.
It bowled with the red ball and restricted the home team to 296, faced nine overs from the Board President’s XI pacers Shardul Thakur, Nathu Singh and Hardik Pandya and lost two wickets for 46 runs.
It was a bright sunny day that made obvious the contrast between the South Africans’ snow-white apparel and the home team batsmen’s off-white flannels and shirt; but what also came into focus was the methodical way the fast and seam bowlers in Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada worked in their opening bursts.
The off-spinners, Simon Harmer and Dane Piedt and wrist spinner Imran Tahir, too got their chances.The firm surface provided consistent bounce and also afforded extra bounce when the beanpole Morken flicked his wrist and pitched short.
The visitors’ pacers did not give any leeway for the Indian batsmen, except when Pandya punished the off-spinners hitting three sixes.
At the outset, Steyn offered a juicy over-pitched ball for Unmukt Chand to hit a thundering straight drive for the first genuine boundary shot, but the veteran fast bowler caused the ball to drift away and forced an edge.
Pujara fails
Not really in great nick on under-prepared pitches at Rajkot in three Ranji Trophy matches, Cheteshwar Pujara perished while playing beside the line and the home team was on the backfoot.
Soon Steyn found a weakness in Shreyas Iyer’s initial movement and made him nick to wicketkeeper Dane Vilas.
Meanwhile, as his partners departed, K.L. Rahul struggled through his near three-and-quarter hour stint but he did not waver and competed against the pace and spin attack of the visitors.
Karun Nair turned out to be an ideal foil as the two put on 105 runs fourth-wicket partnership before Nair edged to the keeper.Skipper Hashim Amla brought Tahir in before tea.
South Africa bowled 27 before lunch and 29 in the second session, and during this period the most impressive was Steyn. In the 63rd over, he removed Naman Ojha with a conventional outswinger.
The urgency to complete 90 overs resulted in the spinners being given the old ball and Baroda’s Pandya demonstrated his fearless approach, hitting Piedt for two on-side sixes.
A little over half an hour into the first session of the day, things looked bleak at 27 for three, but by close, Rahul (292m, 132b, 13x4), Nair (108m, 70b, 9x4), Ojha (110m, 80b,17x4, 1x6) and Pandya (77m, 55b, 6x4, 3x6) enabled the host reach 296.
THE SCORES:
BOARD PRESIDENT’S XI — 1ST INNINGS: Unmukt Chand c Amla b Steyn 4, K.L. Rahul c du Plessis b Harmer 72, Cheteshwar Pujara c van Zyl b Philander 5, Shreyas Iyer c Vilas b Steyn 9, Karun Nair c Vilas b Philander 44, Naman Ojha c Amla b Steyn 52, Sheldon Jackson c Steyn b Tahir 15, Hardik Pandya c Vilas b Harmer 47, Jayant Yadav c van Zyl b Harmer 22, Karn Sharma not out 7, Shardul Thakur c Amla b Piedt 6; Extras (b-6, lb-5, nb-2): 13, Total (in 78.5 overs): 296.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4, 2-13, 3-27, 4-132, 5-155, 6-208, 7-226, 8-280, 9-283.
SOUTH AFRICA BOWLING: Dale Steyn 13-2-46-3, Vernon Philander 12-3-37-2, Morne Morkel 5-5-0-0, Kagiso Rabada 8-1-35-0, Stiaan van Zyl 5-2-11-0, Simon Harmer 11-0-41-3, Dane Piedt 15.5-1-88-1, Imran Tahir 6-2-16-1, Dean Elgar 3-0-11-0.
SOUTH AFRICA —1ST INNINGS: Stiaan van Zyl c Chand b Thakur 18, Dean Elgar (batting) 18, Simon Harmer c Ojha b Thakur 4; Extras (b-4, nb-2): 6, Total (for two wkts. in 8.2 overs): 46.
Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-46.
BOARD PRESIDENT’S XI BOWLING: Shardul Thakur 4.2-0-28-2, Nathu Singh 3-0-10-0, Hardik Pandya 1-0-4-0.