Steyn cautions India against SA pitches

Mumbai (PTI): Dale Steyn, the world's most feared pacer, on Tuesday backed his country South Africa to come out trumps in the three-Test series against India to be held at the end of this year, but was also wary of the quality of the opposing batting line-up. "We have got a pretty good Test side at the moment, to be fair, and we play quite well at home. I would like to say that we would win it. Coming to South Africa, it is a difficult place to play cricket," said the world's highest rated bowler. "Wickets here are lot flatter than what it is in South Africa. It does make it a little bit difficult for the Indian batsmen. "However, cricket is a funny game and India has got some fantastic players. Shikhar Dhawan is batting nicely and they have got some great players. We will wait for the next couple of months and see what happens," said Steyn at gaming centre "Smaash" here. India drew the Test series 1-1 during their previous tour of South Africa in 2010-11. The pace spearhead of IPL team Sun Risers Hyderabad also heaped praise on Sachin Tendulkar and said the senior batsman is one of the most difficult batsmen to bowl at.

"There was a time in Nagpur (2009-10 Test series) and I was bowling to Sachin, it felt like when I was bowling to all the other batters, I was going past the bat and finding the edge, I was bamboozling them with in-swing and away-swing. "But Sachin knew exactly what I was going to bowl before I even started running. He had me covered. He did his homework on me and he knew exactly what was coming. There is no worse feeling in knowing that whatever I threw at him, he had the arsenal to combat. That was quite difficult," Steyn said. He was referring to the opening Test of the two-match series in February, 2010 that was won by the Proteas by an innings despite Tendulkar's superb century in the second innings after India had followed on. In the limited overs games, Steyn regarded West Indian Chris Gayle as the most destructive player.