Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels that India could have bowled better

The much-awaited Freedom Series has finally begun. India were expected to match the Proteas and leave no stones unturned. After a few surprising selections, they were finally out on the field being asked to bowl first. Their plans remained intact as the Indian skipper would have chosen to field anyways. The No.1 Test team did not disappoint on a bright morning at the Newlands in Cape Town.

India bowled out South Africa for 286 on day one. Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck gold in the first over of the day by removing Dean Elgar who has become a tough nut to crack. At one stage, the Proteas were reeling at 12/3 and did not have answers to Indian seam bowlers. But the arrival of AB de Villiers eased things and the South Africans finally managed to reach a respectable score of 286.

The Swing-king

The star of the show for the Indians was Bhuvneshwar. At 12/3, he had the opposition dressing room on its feet. He finished with figures of 4/87 and believes that the team conceded 25-30 runs extra.

“To be honest, we could have bowled better. We gave 25-30 runs extra, just wanted to bowl in good areas. We wanted to get the batsmen out caught behind or in the slips. We knew it doesn’t swing much in South Africa. Never felt the wicket would be slow. We thought there would be lateral movement and that’s what happened. Overall we’re happy with the way we’ve bowled,” he said in the post-stumps interview.

The other bowlers struggled to find their rhythm and conceded a lot of boundaries. It was an amazing day of Test cricket and Bhuvi feels that it is going to be tough for India to come out of the situation. Left with 11 overs for the day, India finished at 28/3 with Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Virat Kohli back in the hut.

When asked about AB de Villiers’ counter-attacking knock that tilted the momentum towards the hosts he said, ”AB is best in the world. You have to be at your best to bowl to him. His counter-attack hurt us.”

The South African bowlers erased any advantage that India could have taken on Day 1. Can the batsmen step up and build up a few partnerships to get closer to the South African total?