Just a while back, when I was coming back from playing cricket, a 10-year-old boy was talking to his friends that Dale Steyn is nothing in front of a bowler like Jasprit Bumrah, which the world is discussing so much today. This is probably the first time since I started watching cricket and it shows that in this era what has become the condition of a bowler.
The cricket I grew up watching was different from today's cricket. Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Curtly Ambrose were probably in the late years of their careers when I saw their fiery bowling test against the batsmen. If those bowlers were so dangerous in the last few years, then you can imagine what they would be in their prime time. Still I was not even 10 years old that I know much about their bowling abilities but that bowling was dangerous to see. Before that I had heard stories of Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall bowling that all told the world what you can’t do with bowling.
I still remember when I started watching cricket from the 1999 World Cup, an army of fast bowlers were saying goodbye to cricket. On the other hand, young bowlers like Brett Lee, Shane Bond, Shoaib Akhtar and Dale Steyn had their early days in cricket. . While Brett Lee’s fast bowling was injuring the batsmen badly, on the other hand the bowling of Shane Bond and Shoaib Akhtar were breaking all the records.
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Apart from these three bowlers, there was another bowler Dale Steyn from South Africa, whose story is probably the most different and exciting. It is not that apart from these four bowlers, there was no other fast bowler in that era. There were bowlers from James Anderson to Andy Bichel too. But Dale Steyn was part of a team that was probably fighting for its existence. While the rest of the bowlers were part of a better team, Dale Steyn was part of the team whose captain was Graeme Smith, who was only 22 years old. Dale Steyn’s story begins in a difficult period where his team was fighting many battles.
In an era to pioneer fast bowling and take it to a level where no one has taken it till date, there must have been some such thing in the bowler who made everyone crazy about his fast bowling, one of whom am also. He has been South Africa’s most successful bowler by taking 439 in just 93 Test matches. A magician whose speed and unmistakable restraint on the ball make him a bowler of a high order. If the same bowler played in the 70’s or 80’s where the conditions were absolutely perfect for bowling, then you can guess how many wickets this bowler would have completed his career.
Today's cricket may have become just a play of entertainment where one's thinking towards a great bowler has completely ended which is a wrong thing. But in the midst of all this, history has been written by Dale Steyn, which will be remembered by the generations to come. Thank you Dale Steyn for reviving Test cricket and taking it to a level that hardly anyone can reach. Your record may be equaled but your status will never be equaled.
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