South Africa v India - The importance of Zaheer Khan

Dale Steyn ended up the Indian resistance on the second day by picking up his sixth wicket, his fifteenth five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The Indian team cam out to bowl against a very competent South African batting line-up who at Port Elizabeth made the Indian bowlers toil hard.

This South African batting line-up was needed to be jolted and India needed to inject an early blow. Who would be ideal person to inject that? Obviously, it would be Zaheer Khan. This time around, Zaheer had been fit and beaming with confidence. A fit and confident Zaheer is a hard nut to crack.

From the word go, Zaheer started to test the South African batsmen. He extracted enough bounce and movement from the pitch and each of his deliveries were posing a threat. A vital breakthrough came immediately - Graeme Smith was given the marching order with a ball banged on a perfect length with pace and that ball kissed Smith’s bat to the wicketkeeper. Zaheer was on song. Then it was time for Alviro Peterson to leave the crease. Zaheer pitched the ball on the leg-stump; Peterson went for the charge on the onside but discovered that his bails have been knocked off.

Zaheer’s energetic bowling and timely strikes had given the Indian bowlers enough momentum and for which suddenly we could notice that an erratic Sreesanth to bowl his heart out and the lanky Ishant Sharma became threatening. Ishant had bowled with pace and intent against Jacques Kallis. It was a different Indian bowling attack altogether. Kallis was run out and the South African batting line-up was reeling. The Indians were in a high.

The much gained momentum must be utilized at its maximum and thus, Zaheer Khan came to bowl again. He dismissed Ashwell Prince with a Jaffa - It was a ball that Zhaeer made to move away and angled it into the batsman; producing one of those balls that pitched on and held its line. Prince played around it and found his stumps arranged! What a ball!

Enters Harbhajan Singh make full use of this momentum. He bagged four wickets and South Africa were bundled out for just 131.

The Indian bowlers dished out an astonishing performance. It all happened due to Zaheer Khan whose inspiring bowling essayed a much needed momentum which helped the other Indian bowlers to utilize. Surely, Zaheer is the leader of this Indian attack.     

Thank You

Faisal Caesar