Dale Steyn and fast Bowling – Hardly anyone in the world do not know about this alignment. 5th August, 2019 when Dale Steyn Announced to drop of curtains of his career from the longest format of game due to injury problem from last few years – not only it was the end of career of another cricketer but it was the end of era of sheer raw pace bowling – Test Cricket when Dale Steyn was bowling was way more Entertaining and it will take ages to fill Space left by him.
A career of 15 long years where dale Steyn bamboozled every great batsman even in the batting friendly conditions with his pace, poise, bounce and swing – rated him as complete fast bowlers in the history of cricket. Dale Steyn is the leading wicket taker for South Africa with 439 wickets in 93 matches with a mind boggling average of 22.95 and strike rate 42.30.
To put things into the frame, not only his overall strike rate of 42.30 is better but his strike rate of under 200 wickets is also at the top in the history by bowler – his consistency put him above everyone. The most interesting fact of his career was bowling in subcontinent pitches.
In Subcontinents, fast bowling and pitches have no alignment – but this myth was also changed by Dale Steyn. A Non Asian bowler with 93 wickets in 22 tests – this record is still under his name with most number of wickets on the Asian tracks. Although in terms of strike rate 42.9 in subcontinent he is next best to Sir Richard Hadlee.
Take a look back at the top 5 greatest spells of Dale Steyn in a test cricket –
7/51 and 3/57 Vs India, 2010:
At the top, it would definitely be this performance of dale Steyn against India in their own backyard. After long tours of England and Australia, South Africa tour India to taste the flavour of Subcontinent pitches. Beating India in India was next to Impossible with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
Coming into first test, after winning the toss South Africa captain decided to bat with 6/2 and both Openers back to the pavilion – it looked like the move was suicidal from Graeme Smith. But what next was the complete different picture. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis put on 340 run stand partnership for the 3rd wicket to put his team back into the match. With unbeaten 253* from Hashim Amla and 173 from Jacques kallis to went on to post 558/6 in the first innings while South Africa declared their innings.
With this score it was clear bowlers had least opportunities to get breakthrough here. But When team has Dale Steyn – there is definitely something different and what followed next was the Dale Steyn Show. With likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir – Dale Steyn was in the no mood of allowing the batsman to dominate the batting. 7/51 in the first innings it was a complete show of reverse swing – team India Crumbled down 233/10 in the first innings.
325 run lead team India was forced to avoid the follow on and Dale Steyn in his style removed the first wicket of Swashbuckling Opener Virender Sehwag to end of hopes of team India to get back into this match. With 3/57 in the second innings team India failed to avoid the follow on and lost the match by 6 runs and inning.
5/54 and 4/45 Vs Sri Lanka, 2014:
The First tour of Hashim Amla as a Captain after the retirement of Graeme Smith – it was going to be really difficult for them. As their frontline pacer, Dale Steyn was going through series of Injuries and South Africa has also lost the series to predator Australia Just before this campaign.
Coming into the first test after winning the toss, South Africa decided to bat first and on the back of Dean Elgar (103), JP Duminy (100) along with the well-consolidated knocks of Faf Du Plessis (80) and Quinton de Kock (51) went onto post 455/9 while declared their first innings.
With this scoreboard and likes of Sangarkara and Jayawardene, it was clear audience will going to see the absolute carnage from Sri Lanka team too. But followed next was the Dale Steyn at its best. 5/54 in the first innings – it means team has Crumbled and that's What was happened with Sri Lanka.
292/10 in the first inning of Sri Lanka it was the question on the ability of big-match players of Sri Lanka. While South Africa declared there Second Innings at the Score of 206/6 with some valuable contributions from their players but AB de Villiers was the highest scorer in the second innings with 51 runs off 58 balls.
More than 4 session to go, Sri Lanka has to chase the total of 371 in the fourth Innings of a match. Dale Steyn along with Morne Morkel dismantle the 8 Sri Lanka batsman while sharing the 4 wickets each. The hosts were no way near the total and ended on the losing side with 153 run defeat and South Africa registered their series win after 20 long in Sri Lanka.
5/23 and 3/91 Vs India, 2008:
It was all started here the dale Steyn affair of Subcontinent pitches. With a draw in Chennai – everything depends on the second test of the series. After winning the toss, Indian Captain decided to bat first – to put things into perspective beating India in India with likes of Sehwag, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly it was next to impossible. But followed next was Dale Steyn Glimpse what had to come in the next years.
76 No, it was not the number it was the first inning score of team India 76/10 – Dale Steyn breached the defense of star line up and destroyed them single handily. With that batting line of team India if Dale Steyn could do that – he was the special talent in so many ways.
South Africa started their first inning it looked at one stage 117/4 team India will stop tourist before 200. But Jacques Kallis (132) and AB de Villiers 217* took the game away from hosts with one match-winning partnership for the 5th wicket.
The tourist declared their first inning at a score of 494/7. With the lead of 400 plus, it was a daunting task to overcome but with that batting line team India fought back but it was not possible to draw the match from that massive lead and result was obvious team India lost the match by an innings and 80 runs and again Dale Steyn picks up 3 wickets with the crucial wicket of Sourav Ganguly.
6/8 and 5/52 Vs Pakistan, 2013:
Pakistan tour of South Africa in a 3 match test series. The first test match of the series and South Africa after winning the toss decided to bat first on the fast track of Johannesburg and scored 253 in the first inning the score was low from the south point of view.
Pakistan came into the bat with every hope of surpassing the score of South Africa first inning total. But what followed next was the taste of Dale Steyn art of fast bowling 6/8. 49 No, it was not just a number it was the lowest total in test cricket by Pakistan team 49/10. Batsman had no answer to the class of bowling genius Dale Steyn. Pace, bounce and swing – Impeccable with this sort of damage no chance team could recover from it and tourist lost the match by a margin 211 run with Dale Steyn picks up 5/52 in the second innings too and adjudged with the man of the match for his unreal exhibition.
5/87 and 5/67 Vs Australia, 2008:
Beating the predator Australian in their own territory it means the team had a special talent. Coming into the second test Australia after winning the toss decided to bat at MCG ground and went onto post 394 in their first inning with the fine century of Ricky Ponting (101) and an unbeaten knock of Micheal Clarke 88* but pick up bowler from South Africa was Dale Steyn with 5/87 With crucial wickets of Simon Katich (54) and Micheal Hussey (0).
With 251/8 it looked like with just a few more runs hosts will be coming to bat again but followed next was Dale Steyn (76) flavour of batting put on the 180 runs match-winning partnership with JP Duminy (166) for 9th wicket and tourist scored 459 in their first Innings with the lead of 65 runs.
Australia looking to repeat the same flow of runs in the second innings too but Dale Steyn trapped predator Australian into his plan while picks up 5/67 in the second innings while took four crucial wickets of Mathew Hayden, Simon Katich, Micheal Clarke and Andrew Symonds and restrict the host to the big total on the board and easily won the game by 9 wickets.
