Steyn just ignites the Proteas’ fire when he takes the red ball
ON Monday at Centurion, Dale Steyn said: “Twenty overs does not put you in a position to say I am back. You learn how to start playing the game again and I am getting there. There’s been some reward, but nowhere near what I am capable of.”
Today, it would be fair to say that Steyn is indeed back after he bowled the Proteas to their first Test series win in more than 12 months with the 26th “five-for” of his career.
The most gratifying aspect wasn’t just the amount of wickets he took – eight in the match after his three-wicket burst in the first innings – but rather the manner in which he went about his work.
By his own admission, he “struggled to get the ball to get up there” in the first innings but from his first delivery in the second, the speedster was right on the money.
The ball was coming out “sweetly”, and it was like “magic”. “I could land it where I wanted to. I had the ball on a string,” Steyn said.
Although he claims that he feels that he still needs to up the pace and is still “five kilometres off it”, Dale has never relied on express pace to be successful.
The beauty of Steyn has always been his ability to hit that length that causes a great deal of uncertainty in a batsman’s foot movement.
On a surface that also offers him the assistance that SuperSport Park did yesterday, he is almost unplayable.
Luckless Kiwi opener Tom Latham certainly discovered that yesterday. The left-hander’s feet were firmly stuck in the crease, unsure of whether to press forward or hang back, while the no-shot offered suggests that he was as confused a chameleon in a box of Smarties.
That one delivery was enough to send shivers all the way up the stairs that leads to the New Zealand dressing-room at SuperSport Park. And to create further chills, Steyn bent one away from Martin Guptill a few balls later that took the edge and flew to Hashim Amla at first slip.
And that’s what South Africa, and specifically captains Amla and AB de Villiers, have sorely lacked over the past year. For all the skill and combativeness that young Kagiso Rabada possesses and has delivered in the interim, the Proteas Test side has relied heavily on the talismanic Steyn to create chaos in the opposition lineup.
And nobody does that better than him. In a bygone era when South Africa roamed the world as Test champions, Graeme Smith always knew that in the crunch moments he could chuck the ball to Steyn and something would happen. And habitually it did.
Steyn didn’t only deliver a prized scalp or create the crucial breakthrough, but he also has a way of infusing his teammates with energy.
Stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis has often said that he draws inspiration from Steyn’s manic celebrations, when those crazy eyes light up and the veins in his neck bulge through his skin.
It’s that emotion from Steyn that the Proteas have lacked in the field almost as much as the wickets he claims. Dale is the fire that burns within the Test side and the timing of his return can’t be better, with arch-rivals Australia next on the agenda.
We don’t know for how much longer 33-year-old Steyn still wants to terrorise batsmen with the red ball in the international arena.
But for as long he is able to do so, just sit back and marvel at one of the true legends of South African cricket.