Dale Steyn has all the reasons to sport a smile at the end of the day as his five-wicket burst destroyed India on the opening day of the first Test here. But he did not stop there as the South African fast bowler resorted to some gamesmanship to tighten the noose around the already beleaguered Indians.

Steyn said the Indians entered the field without a proper gameplan, and the regular tumbling of wickets made the hosts batsmen a scared lot.

“There was a little bit of movement which we didn’t have in Chennai. It probably scared the Indians a bit after one or two wickets fell and the ball seemed to be moving around,” Steyn remarked. It looked like it sent a couple shivers down the Indian batting line-up. It looked like the guy that came in next didn’t really know how to approach it and how to play the game,” he said.

“Once one or two wickets fall and things go wrong they are pretty weak. They didn’t have a gameplan or strategy," the fast bowler observed. The pace bowler too dwelled on the nature of the pitch and stressed on the rumours of debate between Indian skipper Anil Kumble and curator Dhiraj Parsana on the preparation of the surface.

Pleasantly surprised

“I’ve never seen a pitch like this (in the sub-continent) with so much grass. Maybe it played more into our hands. From what I read there was a bit of an argument between the curator and the Indian captain.

“They probably didn’t get what they wanted. If they didn't get what they wanted then you have to ask the question, ‘why did they bat first?’ If you always thought it was going to be green then maybe you made the wrong decision,” he said.

As an afterthought he added, “We don't get too involved in what's happening in the Indian camp. It's not part of our strategy to play mind games.”

Bowling strategy

South Africans had warned about using short-pitched balls to curb the free-stroking Indian batsmen. But on the day, the short balls were as sparse as the Indian total, as the visitors troubled them with fuller length deliveries. Steyn explained the strategy.

“If you don’t bowl full on a wicket like this, you’re not going to find the edge of the bat. I think from reading in the papers they weren’t going to come forward before the ball was bowled so maybe that helped us.”

On their batting strategy, Steyn said: “We're used to playing on wickets like this back in South Africa and knew what we had to do. We had to get through that period when the ball is swinging and make sure we didn’t lose too many wickets.

“Our batters batted extremely well, so hats off to them. On a pitch like this, especially against a team that just got bowled out for 76, then you aim to get ahead of them and it hurts a lot. Every run ahead of their total is like gold.”

Steyn described the ball with which he dismissed Rahul Dravid as the best of the day.