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‘Morkel proved seamers will have a role to play’

Wed 25 Nov 2015, 6:57 pm

‘Morkel proved seamers will have a role to play’
Summary

Shaun Pollock on how Day 1 unfolded and what to expect on Day 2

For South Africa, Day 2 is going to be very challenging. I thought they bowled really well on day-one to restrict India to 215. The seamers did the part. There was lots of control in the middle overs that allowed South Africa to come back into the match. They were led by Morne Morkel who surprised the Indian batsmen with the amount of reverse swing, he managed to get on a surface like this. It showed that seam bowlers can definitely play a part in this match going forward. His injury will be a worry for South Africa for the rest of this Test. The spinners too bowled really well for the visitors. Simon Harmer was good and bowled with control and got the ball to spin. Dean Elgar and Imran Tahir at times bowled well too. It was a good quality performance by South Africa, but the end of play on Day 1 we saw the affect the Indian spinners are going to have on this match. They were superb. They picked up two wickets and though one was a tail-ender (Tahir), they got the initial breakthrough. South Africa will feel ‘we have got a lot of work to do in defence and in attack. We got to have some clear game plans’. In order to be effective they will need to bat superbly well to challenge India’s total. It should be an awesome day of cricket. It will be exciting to see how the game unfolds on day-two.