South African speedster Anrich Nortje was on fire on day two of the ongoing second Test against Pakistan as he claimed his third five-wicket haul in the longest format of the game to restrict the hosts from building a massive score in the the ongoing match in Rawalpindi.
Nortje returned with impressive figures of 5/56 in 24.4 overs while Keshav Maharaj scalped three wickets to help South Africa bundle Pakistan out for 272 in their first innings on Friday (February 5).
However, Proteas failed to make the most of Nortje’s impressive effort, as the tourists handed away the advantage by conceding a lead of 71 runs to hand back the advantage to the hosts on day three.
After his fifer, Nortje said such a performance in the sub-continent conditions means a lot to him while saying bowling short spells and in straighter lines, while trying to keep his angles has helped him a lot in the Asian conditions in the longest format of the game and against Pakistan too.
As reported by ESPNCricinfo, Nortje said: “Getting a performance in the subcontinent definitely means a lot. Hopefully, I can just grow as a fast bowler. At home, if you run in hard, bowl fast, and get the ball in the right areas, you've already sort of taken a wicket a lot of the time.”
He continued, “But, particularly in the last while, I try to keep my angles - even where I start running from - as straight as possible. That's helped me a lot, particularly in the subcontinent. Sometimes, when I go a bit wider because there's not a lot of bounce here, it's an easy cut shot most of the time. In South Africa, you're trying to get into that channel. Here you're trying to hit the stumps most of the time, and you also don't want to be bowling on a leg stump. It's one thing I've focused on a lot.”
On South Africa’s strategy to bowl short spells to save energy, the pacer said: “We had a chat about the energy of the fast bowlers and trying to create something in our spells - to not bowl too long and when we do come on try and create something. That's what happened in this game. We didn't bowl long spells and we tried to dig it in as much as possible and hit the wicket as much as possible. That was the plan, to bowl short spells and try to have as much energy as you can.”
He signed off by saying, “With the hardball, there is some bounce. I don't think the fast bowlers will be completely out of it, I think there might be different opportunities and different ways of taking wickets like we saw the ball keeping low, so that might come into it.”
(With ANI Inputs)
