Dale Steyn – Fast Bowling DNA of the Finest Class

“I’ve said many times before, a 150 or 145 km yorker is absolutely no different whether you bowl it here in Nagpur, Chennai, Johannesburg, Perth… It’s the skill behind the delivery, what the planning is behind the delivery, that is what counts at the end of the day.” – Dale Steyn

What is it that society loves the most? An act of rebellion that paints dazzling hues on the canvas of our imagination. That is why the greatest sights in cricketing history have always been of fast bowlers thundering their way to the 22-yard patch of brown, before toying with the minds of the most skilful and steely men that have graced the game with a piece of willow in their hand. True, Ponting’s pull and Sachin’s straight drive, Sourav’s elegant square drive off the front foot and Lara’s flashy extra cover drive off the back foot with a huge back-lift, Vivian Richards’ flicks off the pads and GR Vishwanath’s late cuts have inspired poetic memories in the minds of cricket lovers. But nothing has captured their imagination like the ‘Whispering Death’ or the ‘White Lightning’, like a Marshall with his menacing angled run up, or an Ambrose with his intimidating leaps; and while a batsman’s battle lasts for a while, the genuine fast bowler can turn the match in the blink of an eye. That is why we should collectively thank Dale Steyn for keeping the spice alive in Test cricket.

What, you may ask, is the one attribute of a fast bowler that makes him the world’s greatest? How do you judge the fast bowlers of an era, before placing them on a high pedestal or giving them a place in the pantheon of greats? It cannot be raw pace, for we have seen how some of the West Indian fast bowlers like Kemar Roach, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards watch their deliveries blazed across the turf far often than the reasonably slower Rampaul. There was a time when Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee were involved in a historic tussle, steaming their way into the record books, gunning deliveries that defied human mechanics. However, their bowling was never untainted. There were question marks over their action as well as their effectiveness, while line, length and skill maestros in McGrath and Akram continued to be the linchpins of their team’s bowling attacks.

So, what makes Dale Steyn a miraculous presence in the legion of today’s Test bowlers? What makes him so special that no bowler has been able to replace him from the pinnacle of ICC rankings for more than couple of years? Hailing from Phalaborwa, a small town in Transvaal Province, Dale Willem Steyn isn’t the product of high class cricket academies or posh, urban schools with a sporting legacy of their own. He is an out-and-out athlete gifted with a body that is as much a brush in a painter’s hand as it is a sniper in an assassin’s hand. Dale Steyn, along with Shane Bond, can boast of the game’s most beautiful bowling actions in recent decades. When he is in rhythm, his approach to the popping crease and the subsequent release is no less idyllic than the sight of the Table Mountain on a bright sunny day, blessed with blue skies. That he has been one of the least injury-prone of all fast bowlers of his generation talks of his gifted body structure complemented by an easy action.

So why do cricketing pundits as well as pure lovers of the game laud him with lavish praise? He has been awarded the ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2008 for doing something unimaginable – plucking 86 wickets in just 14 matches at 18 runs apiece. Only one other bowler since the 90′s has been able to wreak a havoc of that magnitude and ferocity for as long a period – Waqar Younis, who averaged less than 20 during a 4-year period of his career when he was at the peak of his bowling prowess. Steyn boasts of 5 10-wicket hauls in 63 matches to go along with 21 5-wicket hauls. Compare that to Warne’s 10 10-wicket hauls and 37 5-wicket hauls in 145 Tests, and you will realise why Steyn is already lauded the generation’s best fast bowler. Averaging slightly less than 23 in Tests, Steyn isn’t the world’s greatest owing to the enormity of the stats that he has racked up. Stats prove a fact, no doubt, but then glory or miracles on the field can hardly be etched with the ink of stats. Like Lara’s magical brilliance or Warne’s genius, Steyn evokes emotions that are beyond the game’s stratagems or plans. He is capable of bowling like an alien with as much effect on a Nagpur dust-bowl as he would in the minefields of Durban.

What makes Steyn the greatest of his generation is the fact that he can curve them away from middle stump at 90 mph with devilish consistency. In doing so, he combines Lee’s dreaded out-swingers at pace with McGrath’s pinpoint accuracy. Only fear takes over the batsmen when they potentially face two of the world’s greatest fast bowling legends in a single delivery, with no respite in sight. Steyn can keep coming at you all day with the same intensity, the same ferociousness and the same venom. In Philander, who almost took down the record for the fastest to 50 wickets in the game’s history, and Morkel, a giant who effortlessly hammers the pitch with missiles, Steyn has two illustrious partners. Yet, it speaks volumes of his ability that he can spearhead a pack as wild and ferocious as that, doing it day in and day out.

In the future, Dale Steyn would be spoken of in very high regard for his wicket tally, which could well cross 600, his unbelievable strike rate hovering around 7 overs per wicket, and his sensational pace. However, those who have been blessed to be his contemporaries will have a tale to tell that isn’t as prosaic as stats, but of lightning that danced to a rhythm on the cricket ground. They would speak of a bowler who, on his day, could single-handedly demolish the opposition with a ball in his hand, irrespective of the conditions, the brown patch below or the blue patch above. That is because the man with a grim look on his face and an ability to make the red cherry talk with vigour, was sent for the sole purpose of tormenting the willow-wielders in an era that is trying its best to exorcise cricket’s most eye-catching species.