Steyn to work on his batting?

Dale Steyn’s superb batting effort in making his maiden ODI half-century and steering South Africa to victory over Zimbabwe in the second ODI in Bloemfontein was a bit of a double-edged sword, according to the ace fast bowler, because it showed he’s perhaps been getting away scotfree with not working enough on his batting.

Coming to the crease with the innings in disarray on 101/7, Steyn (below) scored 60 and batted with tremendous composure to take the Proteas to 198 all out.

“I always used to joke around at the start of my career that I could bat a bit, and this innings probably showed I have not worked hard enough at it because there is some skill there it seems! It’s taken almost 14 years to get my first ODI fifty, but I’m just happy to be back playing and contributing.

“It’s a bit disappointing that I did not get it earlier, but I guess we’ve had a pretty strong batting line-up through the years. But the opening bowlers bowled out and myself and Andi (Phehlukwayo) batted it out in five-over spells.

“The thing is I’ve been playing cricket, which is nice. In the past I’ve come into series from the winter, but I’ve been playing county cricket recently and I feel cricket-fit. We have some good all-rounders, so no, I’m not looking to fill one of those spots,” Steyn said after his Man-of-the-Match performance, which also saw him take the first two wickets in a ferocious new-ball spell.

“The pitch was obviously not the best and I’ve been around and seen quite a few pitches in my time. It started with Reeza Hendricks’ dismissal, the ball just didn’t bounce, and then others went through the top and onto the splice, all from a reasonable length.

“We thought Kimberley wasn’t great and these are not the sort of pitches we really want to be playing on. Hopefully Paarl tomorrow will be better,” Steyn said.