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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - Whenever Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel are turning out on the same field, you would expect some activity in the wickets column.
After all, they are not branded probably the world's leading strike combination - certainly in Test-match terms - for nothing.
So it was a little unexpected that, in a rare instance of the long-time Proteas and Titans colleagues being on opposite sides on Tuesday, neither could earn a scalp.
Steyn's Deccan Chargers beat Morkel's Delhi Daredevils by 16 runs in an Indian Premier League encounter at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
Yet if anything, both South African favourites only underlined their ever-increasing confidence as limited-overs "stranglers", on a typical Subcontinent pitch clearly favouring the batsmen.
The lanky Morkel registered his most expensive analysis in this year's competition of 4-0-31-0 but that was still just inside the rough "par" of eight runs to the over in concession terms.
He had been noticeably tighter in two previous outings, including marvellous figures of 4-0-11-1 against Rajasthan Royals a week ahead of this match.
And commentators kept stressing that Morkel was feeling poorly; he had apparently not been able to eat for a day and half before the Chargers clash and that may have explained why he did not crank up any deliveries to the sort of blinding speeds everyone knows he is capable of.
But the mounting development of his T20 skills was evident nevertheless, especially as he rolled his fingers over the ball cleverly at times for effectively disguised changing of pace: remember that this was a bowler notorious a year or two back for his direction going AWOL rather frustratingly at times even as he seldom dared to experiment with "mix it up" options.
Of the IPL bowlers to have sent down more than 10 overs thus far, Morkel is presently the best seamer of any for economy (at 5.91).
Ahead of him on that basis are only two spinners in legendary Shane Warne (Rajasthan, 5.18) and Daniel Vettori (Bangalore, 5.43).
Meanwhile Steyn, who bowled a consistently disciplined stint of 4-0-24-0 for the winning side, has apparently sent down more dot balls than anyone else in the IPL, even if he benefits from having played more matches (five) than most.
His own economy rate is a credible 6.47 - that is a bit like travelling at a mere three to the over in a conventional ODI - and he is the second-highest wicket-taker with six (Lasith Malinga leads with nine) despite going unusually "blank" in that area on Tuesday.
The Proteas spearhead bowled an outstanding opening over of the Daredevils' innings, and this against the side with probably the most destructive IPL opening pair on paper: David Warner and Virender Sehwag.
The big-hitting Australian could not score from the first five balls and only managed to get off the mark with a scampered single from the last one.
Importantly, in the final analysis, it immediately put them on the back foot in their chase ...
Cape Town - Whenever Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel are turning out on the same field, you would expect some activity in the wickets column.
After all, they are not branded probably the world's leading strike combination - certainly in Test-match terms - for nothing.
So it was a little unexpected that, in a rare instance of the long-time Proteas and Titans colleagues being on opposite sides on Tuesday, neither could earn a scalp.
Steyn's Deccan Chargers beat Morkel's Delhi Daredevils by 16 runs in an Indian Premier League encounter at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
Yet if anything, both South African favourites only underlined their ever-increasing confidence as limited-overs "stranglers", on a typical Subcontinent pitch clearly favouring the batsmen.
The lanky Morkel registered his most expensive analysis in this year's competition of 4-0-31-0 but that was still just inside the rough "par" of eight runs to the over in concession terms.
He had been noticeably tighter in two previous outings, including marvellous figures of 4-0-11-1 against Rajasthan Royals a week ahead of this match.
And commentators kept stressing that Morkel was feeling poorly; he had apparently not been able to eat for a day and half before the Chargers clash and that may have explained why he did not crank up any deliveries to the sort of blinding speeds everyone knows he is capable of.
But the mounting development of his T20 skills was evident nevertheless, especially as he rolled his fingers over the ball cleverly at times for effectively disguised changing of pace: remember that this was a bowler notorious a year or two back for his direction going AWOL rather frustratingly at times even as he seldom dared to experiment with "mix it up" options.
Of the IPL bowlers to have sent down more than 10 overs thus far, Morkel is presently the best seamer of any for economy (at 5.91).
Ahead of him on that basis are only two spinners in legendary Shane Warne (Rajasthan, 5.18) and Daniel Vettori (Bangalore, 5.43).
Meanwhile Steyn, who bowled a consistently disciplined stint of 4-0-24-0 for the winning side, has apparently sent down more dot balls than anyone else in the IPL, even if he benefits from having played more matches (five) than most.
His own economy rate is a credible 6.47 - that is a bit like travelling at a mere three to the over in a conventional ODI - and he is the second-highest wicket-taker with six (Lasith Malinga leads with nine) despite going unusually "blank" in that area on Tuesday.
The Proteas spearhead bowled an outstanding opening over of the Daredevils' innings, and this against the side with probably the most destructive IPL opening pair on paper: David Warner and Virender Sehwag.
The big-hitting Australian could not score from the first five balls and only managed to get off the mark with a scampered single from the last one.
Importantly, in the final analysis, it immediately put them on the back foot in their chase ...
