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Dale Steyn was regarded as arguably one of the most lethal bowlers during his stint in professional cricket. Since his debut in 2004, the former South Africa pace spearhead produced numerous scintillating outings with the ball which helped him garner massive number of wickets. With as many as 699 scalps in his account, Steyn is the second highest wicket-taker for South Africa across the three formats of the sport. As he celebrates his 40th birthday on June 27, we take a look at some of his devastating spells from his international career.
6/34 vs West Indies, 2014
In 2014, despite going wicket-less in the first innings of the first Test in Centurion, Steyn made amends in the following innings, as he recorded a sensational six-wicket haul to restrict the Windies to a paltry 131. Steyn led the fearsome bowling attack and ripped through the middle-order with ease to register one of his best bowling figures in Test cricket. His impressive bowling performance helped the Proteas annihilate West Indies by an innings and 220 runs.
6/8 vs Pakistan, 2013
After South Africa posted 253 runs in the first innings of the contest in Johannesburg, 2013, it was Steyn who broke the back of Pakistan’s batting line-up by taking six wickets in the first innings. In addition to this, the Pakistan batting unit failed to target him for the big runs as Steyn gave mere eight runs in his 8.1 overs to restrict them to a dismal score of 49 runs. He further added five wickets in the final innings, helping South Africa win comprehensively by 211 runs.
7/51 vs India, 2010
Steyn was in menacing form during the first Test in Nagpur in 2010. After the Proteas got a humongous 558 runs before declaring, team India got bundled out for 233 runs, courtesy of Dale Steyn’s brilliance with the ball. The ace pacer sliced the middle and lower batting order, like a hot knife through butter, to land the breakthroughs. Getting seven scalps for just 51 runs in his 16.4 overs, Steyn recorded arguably his best bowling figures. He eventually got a match haul of 10 wickets, as he got three scalps in the final innings to help the Proteas comfortably win by an innings and six runs.
