SA v Eng 1st Test Day 1 Review: England recover from Steyn strikes

The Boxing Day had Tests to be played at two different venues-Melbourne and Durban. Incidentally, it was raining in the morning at both the venue and the morning session got delayed by for ample amount of time. However, the damp day at Durban immediately lightened up by some early aggression by Dale Steyn.

The toss was flipped half-hour late than the scheduled time. Alastair Cook called the other side as Amla won the toss and chose to bowl first. The sky was slightly cloudy and conditions looked tricky for the batsmen.

The English skipper took the strike against the fully fit and raring-to-go Dale Steyn. Steyn did not take long to unwrap and present South Africa with its first present of the day as he got the leading run-scorer of the year caught by Dean Elgar at slips for a duck. A couple of overs later, Steyn proved the world that why he’s the best in the world after he got debutant Alex Hales caught behind. It looked like a soft dismissal as Hales thickly edged a ball outside the off stump to wicketkeeper AB de Villiers. It was an awful start for England and all the pre-series talk about how Dale Steyn would perform after being inactive for over a month were put to rest immediately.

Joe Root had once again looked in good form but fell in an unexpected manner. In the 19th over of the innings, off-spinner Dane Piedt who was preferred ahead of a fourth quick in Kagiso Rabada in the squad got his delivery to grip and spin into Root. He did not expect turn straight away and played on the back foot only to get trapped lbw.

But, comeback man Nick Compton and James Taylor, from there on ensured that there were no turnarounds in the game. Both the batsmen batted sturdily and saved the day for England with a 125-run stand between them to spoil all the good work done by Dale Steyn at the start of the innings.

It was a demanding situation for Compton, who was resuming his Test career after having last played in the whites for England in 2013. This unbeaten innings will definitely infuse a lot of self-belief and confidence in him. On the other hand, James Taylor was also very defiant and played Steyn & Co. very effectively. The England number five played a quality knock of 70 before surrendering to Dale Steyn roughly two overs before the end of the days play. England’s new middle order somewhat managed to wear down the South African bowlers to finish day one on a satisfying note.

Brief Scores:

England: 179/4 in 65.1 overs (James Taylor 70; Dale Steyn 3/29)