Morkel steps up the pace
2008-06-30 22:05
Johannesburg - Not surprisingly Dale Steyn has been all the rage during the first week of the Proteas' Castle Test squad tour of England even if he is yet to send down a competitive delivery.
But on Monday it was the turn of Morne Morkel to show that there are several other strings to the Proteas' pace bow that could turn out to be equally intimidating and effective.
While Steyn must almost resemble a low-flying aircraft to opposition batsmen, Morkel is the man who makes optimum use of his 2-metre frame to extract frightening bounce at much the same pace. In spite of the fact that he sent down nine no balls, he was the pick of the Steyn-less attack and was rewarded with three wickets on the second day of the Somerset tour match.
This included two Yorkers, one of which sent James Hildreth's stumps flying and another which left half-centurion Wes Durston with no place to hide his feet.
"It was a very useful workout," commented Morkel afterwards. "It was my first bowl since I was injured playing for Yorkshire and I used the opportunity to get my rhythm right and to experiment with the various lengths that will work in England.
"There are still areas where I need to improve but you need to grab every opportunity you can and I was satisfied with the work-out."
Happy to bowl Somerset out
Durston and the former South African Under-19 wicketkeeper, Craig Kieswetter, were the only two batsmen to pass 50 and the Proteas were more than happy to bowl Somerset out in a few balls short of 60 overs on a pitch that home captain Andrew Caddick had described after day one as being too flat.
The wickets were shared between the four members of the frontline attack - Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel and Paul Harris - while JP Duminy got a brief opportunity to show that his skills are not restricted to batting and that he can be a useful back-up spinner.
When the Proteas batted a second time, another piece of their jigsaw fell into place with Neil McKenzie batting through to the close with Mark Boucher after losing Duminy to the South African combination of Kieswetter and Zander de Bruyn.
The Proteas take an irrelevant lead of 322 into Tuesday's final day and they will be very happy if McKenzie and Boucher get some more time in the middle under their respective belts and then give the bowlers enough time for a second workout.
- SAPA