Steyn back on bloodlust trail

Dale Steyn's week in the wilderness ended in emphatic style at Newlands on Wednesday when he took four wickets on the first day of the second Castle Lager Test against the West Indies.

Steyn claimed 4/60 as the Windies wobbled to the close on 240/8.

No one could quite explain how Steyn's form against New Zealand could fall away so badly in the first Test in Port Elizabeth, where the West Indians won by 128 runs.

A bristling Steyn grabbed the Black Caps by the throat with his haul of 20 wickets in two Tests, but at St George's Park he bowled poorly and didn't seem to know how to fix what had gone wrong.

Gone was the Kiwi killer, replaced by a bowler who at times looked as if he would rather not bowl. But that all changed yesterday, when Steyn rediscovered his bloodlust.

He prised open the first crack in the innings when he had Daren Ganga caught behind for three in the fifth over.

By then, the ground was abuzz with Chris Gayle's decision to bat after he won the toss. As if the thick clouds above weren't reason enough to think about sending the opposition in, the Windies now also had to deal with a responsive pitch.

Gayle himself, of course, disproved all that with a typically laconic 46 that he breezed off 49 balls. That was part of a stand of 59 with Runako Morton that was ended when Makhaya Ntini at mid-off caught Morton's scooped drive off Jacques Kallis.

Then Neil McKenzie celebrated his return to the Test arena with a stunning catch in the gully to remove the West Indies skipper and earn a wicket for Andre Nel.

"I've spent a long time in the cold, but it's good to be back and it's always nice to play at Newlands," McKenzie said.

McKenzie's catch reduced the visitors to 77/3 in the sixth over before lunch.

Which was when Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul tried to drown the game in slow drying cement with a truly dour partnership.

"South Africa came with a plan to starve us, to bowl outside off-stump and not give away any runs," Samuels said in mitigation.

"We simply had to stay there and play a patient game as well."

The public's mood wasn't brightened in the fourth over after lunch, when Ntini failed to hold what would have been a sharp return catch to dismiss Samuels for two.

The sludgy batting oozed into the third session before, mercifully, Ntini found the edge of Samuels' bat and had him caught behind for 51.

In Ntini's next over a nudge by Dwayne Bravo veered towards the slips and Kallis came up with a brilliant catch.

That slapped the crowd back into a wakeful state, and they were on their feet when Steyn used the second new ball to remove Denesh Ramdin and Rawl Lewis with consecutive deliveries.

The second cut a wicked crescent through the air before uprooting off-stump.

Jerome Taylor dealt with Steyn's hat-trick effort well enough, but he was found wanting five overs later when he spliced a short ball into the hands of the Phalaborwa Express. That left 14 balls in the day's play, and Daren Powell kept out six of them for his unbeaten nought.

Chanderpaul was still there on 64, summoning shades of his 104 that won the first Test.