5 of the best ODI bowling performances by Dale Steyn
Dale Steyn is arguably the best fast bowler South Africa has ever produced. Every time he steams in towards the wickets, batsmen sweat and shiver hoping it won’t be another yorker or bouncer bowled at over 90 mph.
Most batsmen are not lucky enough to avoid the wicket ripping delivery. Steyn is back in South Africa’s one-day squad after a gap of 2 years due to injury problems. And now, Dale Steyn is hungrier than ever.
With 180 wickets in 116 ODIs, Steyn is South Africa’s seventh highest wicket-taker in white ball cricket. The rapid fast bowler is already South Africa’s joint highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with Shaun Pollock, which speaks for his class and impact on the game.
The game seemed pale with his absence, but he has been included in South Africa’s ODI squad to play Zimbabwe later this month. The 35-year old last played an ODI in October 2016, but injuries have kept him out of the game ever since. He showed his enthusiasm at being back in the ODI mix through a tweet immediately after the squad was announced.
With the World Cup 2019 in sight, neither will Steyn want to stay out of the World Cup nor will South Africa want to enter the tournament without him. Before the series against Zimbabwe begins, let’s look at the 5 top bowling performances by Dale Steyn in white ball cricket:
#5 vs Bangladesh (Potchefstroom, 2008)
It was 2008 and Dale Steyn was young and relatively early in his career. He didn’t need his mouth to make an impact on the world of sports, as his bowling skills and pace was already there to do it for him. The first ODI between Bangladesh and South Africa in the series saw Steyn make the impact he needed.
South Africa put up 283/8 on the scoreboard and it was more than enough for the Proteas to defend with the bowling line-up they had. Steyn started the proceedings, bowling a hostile spell, which was rewarded by the wickets of Imrul Kayes and Junaid Siddique.
He returned to take down the biggest threat in the form of Bangladesh’s captain Ashraful and bowled out Raqibul Hasan the very next ball. South Africa went on to win the match by 61 runs as the Bangladeshis were bowled out for 222.
Steyn finished with figures of 4/16 and the Player of the Match award.