da poker： South Africa ended their trend of making poor starts on the first couple of days in Tests this series which have left them with too large a recovery task
Brydon Coverdale in Cape Town19-Mar-2009
Paul Harris’ drift and subtle variations helped him collect three wickets © Getty Images
It’s no wonder South Africa haven’t won a toss this series. Theyhaven’t been turning up until midway through the matches. A commontheme from the South African players and coaching staff has been thedisappointment that although they have finished the Tests well, poorstarts on the first couple of days have left them with too large arecovery task.The series is lost but at least they have ended that trend. It was adistinctly zippier South Africa that took the field on the first dayat Newlands. The fast men bowled with speed and menace and the spinnerPaul Harris, although he didn’t get enormous turn, was a handful thanks to his drift and subtle variations. After a couple of simplecatches were dropped early, they were also sharp in the field.”It’s nice to rock up on day one for a change to a Test match,” Harrissaid. “We have rocked up on day three on the previous two and we’velet ourselves down. It’s great for us as a bowling unit to rock up onday one and that’s probably the best we’ve bowled in a long time.”Crucially, Dale Steyn set the tone for his team-mates with his mostconsistently threatening day of the series. He finished with 4 for 56and regained the dash that was his trademark in Australia. Steynthumped a bouncer into the helmet of Andrew McDonald and bowledMichael Clarke with a pearler, a delivery that pitched in line,straightened slightly, beat the outside edge and clipped the top ofoff stump.Just as important were the efforts of Harris, who tossed the ball upto tempt the Australians and collected three wickets. There was agusty wind blowing across the ground and it caused trouble for SimonKatich and Phillip Hughes, both of whom fell when they tried to slogsweep Harris and misread the drift, Hughes lbw and Katich top-edging acatch.”It’s a different skill to bowl into this wind and I really love it,”Harris said. “Today the wind held it up so it wasn’t easy to come downand hit the ball, especially cross-bat shots weren’t easy against thespin bowlers. If you could come down and hit straight maybe it was atouch easier.”It didn’t go for him [Katich] today. On another day he probably wouldhave slog-swept that and it would have gone for four and everyonewould have said ra-ra. That’s how the Aussies play spin. They come atyou and they give you opportunities to get wickets.”While Harris’ main weapon was his drift, Australia’s debutantlegspinner Bryce McGain did find some turn when he bowled two overslate in the day as South Africa made a strong reply to Australia’s209. Harris expected the slow bowlers to come into the matchsignificantly over the next few days.”History says it does turn here. In the last few Tests we’ve playedhere it has spun quite a bit,” he said. “I think it will turn as thematch goes on, days three, four and five. It’s really slow so it’shard work for the seamers.”