Opening notes: Indian bowlers get carried away by the ‘carry’

It began with Bhuvneshwar Kumar,who landed here as the man to watch in the Indian pace attack.

His two-way swing expected to be accentuated in South Africa’s more favourable climes. For that Kumar would have had to land it on the right length,which he failed to do for a majority of his nine expensive overs.

The tone was set in his first over,where he conceded two boundaries,one of a short,inviting delivery and the other a half volley,easily put away by Quinton De Kock. He continued to falter in terms of length,never allowing much chance for lateral movement. It wasn’t until the third delivery of his fourth over that he managed to beat the bat.

Mohit was no different at the other end,repeatedly testing the centre of the wicket,except in the over where he almost had both South African openers out. Probably it was a case of the young new-ball duo getting excited by the carry in their first ODI in this part of the world. De Kock and Amla weren’t complaining.

Mohammed Shami did breathe some fire into the attack,by giving the conditions their due. He was pacy and also pitched it on a length where he got the ball to seam,around 60 per cent of his deliveries landing on the perfect length during his first two spells-where he accounted for Amla and Jacques Kallis.

The spinners too were guilty too often of providing width to the batsmen,and were duly punished on both sides of the wicket,with de Kock also dishing out violence against them with intelligent foot-work,precision sweeping and lofted shots into the straight field.

Overall,close to 70 per cent of the South African boundaries were struck of balls that were pitched halfway up the wicket and sat up to be hit,on either side of the wicket or rank half-volleys.

A statistic that is sure to have eaten into bowling coach Joe Dawes’ provisions of red-ink.

By the time,AB De Villiers and JP Duminy entered blitzkrieg mode,Kumar & Co were dishing out delectable full-tosses,the plot completely lost.