Steyn warns India to expect more aggressive bowling

Durban, Dec 7 (IANS) Sniffing a series win in Durban, South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn once again reminded the Indians that they will be terrified once more with aggressive bowling when the two teams face-off again in the second ODI at the Kingsmead here Sunday.

On the eve of the match here Saturday, Steyn was spitting fire through his words just like his bowling and said that India’s 141-run loss in the first ODI in Johannesburg was like a wake-up call for the World No.1 side.

He said that South Africa won’t be complacent and will try to seal the series here. The third ODI is slated for Wednesday in Centurion.

“In India the ball doesn’t get higher than the stumps. This is not Mumbai. Here, they cannot score easily in different areas and it is going to be hard to play here. And there is more of that coming on Sunday,” he said.

Asked if the Indian batsmen are frightened of South African bowling attack, Steyn said: “I would think so. I would definitely like to think so.”

Steyn hoped it would be repeat of Johannesburg performance here.

“Hopefully we can have a similar performance (as in Johannesburg) as we did the other night, and we should be able to come through with a victory. It is a massive game for us, we have the chance to seal the series here and we would like to do so,” he said.

Steyn also taunted the Indian batsmen saying they never wanted to bat on fast and bouncy tracks.

“Our batsmen are batting really well and in some small way we have really given the Indians a taste of what the conditions are. Our intensity the other night really blew them away. Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin and other batsmen in the end, they didn’t look like they wanted to line-up (to bat),” he said.

The fast bowler feels the massive loss would be a wake-up call for India.

“Then, I didn’t see many of our players walking off the field with bloody fingers or ice packs on ribs. Wanderers can be scary, if you get a full day-night game there. You can inflict pain there, especially on that sort of a wicket. And we were able to do that as a bowling unit. It didn’t look like that when they were bowling to us. So it definitely was a wake-up call for the Indians.”