Steyn top of the pops again
STEYN: ‘PUT ON THIS EARTH TO BOWL IN TEST CRICKET’
Skipper believes Dale and Vernon will become even better with more game time under their belts.
South African cricket captain Faf du Plessis says being honest with themselves had been the catalyst for a much-improved display by the Proteas in their 204-run demolition of New Zealand at Centurion this week.
“The biggest change is that we’ve found our passion again and why we want to win,” said the captain
“The team space is very good and we had some really good discussions, everyone was very mature and took on board everything that was said.
“We felt we needed to improve, we can’t rest on our laurels like the previous team could, we’re not good enough yet to do that. So it’s been a mental transition and we are all extremely hungry to perform, you saw that determination right through this Test.”
That hunger was exemplified by Dale Steyn’s performance, his five for 33 in the second innings setting up the win and giving him match figures of eight for 99, enough for him to return to No 1 on the ICC Test bowling rankings, where he was before injury struck late last year.
At the start of this year, Steyn was being written off in some quarters, but the 33-year-old showed at Centurion that he has plenty left in the tank.
“I just want to play. Maybe I’ll wake up one morning a month from now or four years from now and realise I don’t want to do it anymore, but I really enjoyed this game and bowling in Test cricket is what I feel I was put on this earth to do,” said Steyn.
“The body’s fine, I’m getting wickets, the pace is up there and batsmen are still jumping around, so I’ll just do what I’ve been doing.”
Du Plessis praised both Steyn and Vernon Philander for delivering over-after-over of mean, aggressive pace bowling.
“It will be tough to be a top team without Dale and Vernon, it’s amazing as a captain to be able to throw them the ball and know that the run-rate will be less than three and they will get wickets as well, that’s why they are so good. You need bowlers like them to be able to control the game.
“Dale showed good intensity, gas and control, while Vernon bowled very well too, there weren’t many bad balls from him. They’ll both be even better when they bowl more,” Du Plessis said.