Dale Steyn’s march to greatness

That was freaky wasn’t it? One minute Australia’s first innings was being complete, the next South Africa had been bowled out and then, Australia get rolled over for 47. Truly bizarre.

The pitch shouldn’t be examined for Gummy Bear juice, nor should the bowling be raved about as the reincarnation of Wasim Akram, Sir Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath combined to form a seam-bowling orgy. The bowling was good, obviously, but the batsmen on both sides made it that much easier through poor shot selection. Ask Brad Haddin and Michael Hussey.

Vernon Philander’s debut was something closer associated to a dream than a Test match such was his success with the ball. Jacques Rudolph’s return to Test cricket was a bit too brief in both innings, but the assuredness he showed before both of his dismissals will see him on course to scoring runs at the Wanderers.

His opening partner and captain, Graeme Smith, did another Lazarus, banging his fourth century in the fourth innings, equalling the record held by Sunil Gavaskar, Ricky Ponting and Ramnaresh Sarwan. It is however the record for most centuries in the fourth innings in victories. A stat that underlines Smith’s importance to the Proteas: he has never scored a century when South Africa have lost a Test match. The message is when Smith does well, South Africa does well.

One number that went mostly unnoticed is that Dale Steyn’s bowling average dipped below 23 to an exceptional 22.96. Of all the current international bowlers, Steyn has the best bowling average for bowlers to have bowled more than 2 000 balls in Test cricket. His nearest competitor is Tim Bresnan, who averages 23.60 via 41 wickets in 10 matches. Versus Steyn’s 244 wickets in 47 matches, the Phalaborwa Express is currently without peer in Test cricket.

Steyn boasts the fourth best strike rate in Test-cricket history, dismissing a batsman every 39.6 balls. Of the three men above him, Shane Bond is the only modern cricketer and he played 18 Tests before injury curtailed his career. The others, George Lohmann and John James Ferris, both played their last Test matches before 1900 when Test cricket was still in its infancy.

If Steyn takes six wickets at the Wanderers against Australia this week, he will be the tied fastest man to take 250 wickets, alongside the Australian great Dennis Lillee. The most remarkable aspect about his career is that Steyn started slowly, making his debut in 2004. While he had the pace, control was an issue and after being sent back to first-class cricket, he only really started blossoming in 2006 when he took 16 wickets against New Zealand in the series of that year.

Since then, he has only gotten better. No bowler is more threatening or generally looks more menacing than Steyn in full flight. Have you noticed how he constantly looks angry, letting that emotion pierce the batsman via osmosis. His finest performances have arguably been away from home: 10/154 in Melbourne against Australia (and a 50) that paved the way to South Africa winning the series and 10/108 against in India at Nagpur, including 7/51 on a pitch offering seam bowlers not much at all. Weirdly enough, Steyn has never taken nine wickets in a match.

Steyn can rightly sit in the same company as Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini as the best fast bowlers South Africa have produced since re-admission. Another accolade not distinguishable in figures is that his fitness has generally been uninhibited, not suffering from injury as fast bowlers have tended to be maligned in the modern game. A reason for that is the premium South Africa place on his fitness, often resting him from ODI and T20 cricket. His combination with Morne Morkel has the potential to sit alongside Donald-Pollock, Pollock-Ntini, and Steyn-Ntini as an opening partnership to be feared.

He isn’t quite a great yet, but if he continues in the manner he has been since the summer of 2006, the term that is often thrown about like a cheap hamburger will have some resonance when attached to the name of DW Steyn.