Steyn: ‘I can bowl faster’
10 May 2010
Dale Steyn, the No 1-ranked Test bowler, is pushing his limits.
The world has come to appreciate Steyn as a feisty yet accurate bowler averaging 140kph and producing effort deliveries in the region of 150kph, but he now averages in the high 140s and is capable of conjuring the 150-plus fireballs on the incombustible dirtbowls of India.
‘At the beginning of the IPL, [Bangalore coach] Ray Jennings noticed I’d been bowling a lot quicker and he told me to build a reputation around that,’ Steyn says in the new issue of SA Cricket magazine, on sale this week. ‘Batsmen don’t want to face somebody bowling over 150kph and are likely to take on the next bowler. It’s something I worked on with [former Proteas mental coach] Jeremy Snape. My pace can be a very effective means of setting batsmen up.’
Steyn goes on to explain why he can bowl even quicker, while Snape reveals how some new concentration skills have allowed Steyn to focus just on what he is doing. Former Proteas all-rounder Shaun Pollock also comments on Steyn’s recent progress.
Also in the new issue:
– Proteas coach Corrie van Zyl on his management style, South Africa’s ODI woes, and the 2011 World Cup
– How bitter boardroom battles and a cash shortfall have kept West Indies cricket in the doldrums
– Hashim Amla is set to join an elite group of master Test batsmen
– Four West Indian greats – Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, Wes Hall and Richie Richardson – discuss the plight of their region’s cricket
– A bold new initiative involving the Cape Cobras could change the face of domestic Twenty20 cricket around the world
– Twenty20 has swept through cricket over the past few years. But at what cost is the format going to prove to the wider game?
– Rusty Theron on the rise of the Warriors, his IPL stint, why too much Twenty20 is bad for the game, and his approach to death bowling
– Riki Wessels on his passport problems, playing franchise cricket in Zimbabwe, and how Kepler will help the Proteas batsmen
– Having earned the right to play at the highest level, Bangladesh are determined to take the ever-elusive next step
– In an extract from his new autobiography Slow Death: Memoirs of a Cricket Umpire, Rudi Koertzen reflects on the highs and lows of his profession
* Join SA Cricket magazine’s Facebook group – simply search ‘SA Cricket magazine’
17 Comments
10 May 2010, 09:27 am
in 20 20 fater you bowl further you go….
bring on some test cricket!
10 May 2010, 09:35 am
Steyn is a brilliant bowler, not only for SA and Titans, but also RCB.
He’s going to be one of the best in the history – that’s for sure!
10 May 2010, 12:21 pm
Brett Lee and Shoiab Akhtar could hit 160km/h, as could Allan Donald in his prime. All could send them down at 150 klicks plus for all six in an over. Steyn’s sluggish in comparison.
10 May 2010, 12:45 pm
Shoiab = chucker , so is Lee ….
10 May 2010, 14:29 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-3: Akhtar never bowled a ball in his life, threw them all.
Even in there prime, in was a seldom thing for those guys you mentioned to bowl all 6 balls in an over above 150.
I think your memory is being influenced by your imagination!!
Steyn is the furthest thing from sluggish..
10 May 2010, 14:31 pm
@grant10(grant10)-1: Not neccasarily mate!
Tait, Nannes, Steyn are all succesful in T20.
But you’re right, pace can go miles coming onto the bat nicely in this format
10 May 2010, 14:33 pm
@quotas_sux(quota_conrad_jantjies_is_jorrie_muller)-4: Watch Shuan Tait next time the Aussies play. I reckon he chucks
10 May 2010, 20:04 pm
Steyn might be a bit slower than Akhtar and Lee. But I’d rather face 150 straight up than 145 swinging miles
11 May 2010, 15:06 pm
Steyn: ‘I can bowl faster’
To who???
25 May 2010, 19:25 pm
Steyn, you can bowl as fast as you want but when you bowling 4 wides in an over – each at 150 kp/h, you won’t have much of a career. Good bowler though. Anyway, the issue was great to read! Rusty Theron’s interview was intresting as well as Amla; the banker!
5 Jul 2010, 07:24 am
Can you stop spitting?
5 Jul 2010, 07:24 am
Can Biff stop chewing gum with his mouth open?
7 Jul 2010, 03:12 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-12:
Still flying the Brett Lee flag and flogging his ‘superstar’ status, huh Tackles?
Give it up, as all it does is show how little you know about cricket.
Lee was quick, yes, but his averages were ordinary, in line with Andre Nel’s, in fact.
Steyn, on the other hand, is pure class, on a different level to ‘golden boy, all hype and little delivery’ Lee.
7 Jul 2010, 07:49 am
Lee’s averages are much in line with Steyn’s, actually. Allowing for Lee’s longer experience, obviously, and the fact that his career has tailed off, while Steyn is still nearing his peak.
Lee’s 76 games yielded 310 test wickets, with a best innings of 5/30 and an economy of 3.46 rpo and a strike rate of 53.
Steyn has 211 wickets in 41 tests with a best of 7/51 and an economy of 3.5 rpo and a rather better strike rate of 39.
Lee was scarier. Much scarier. Bowel-looseningly scary.
And faster. Much faster.
7 Jul 2010, 08:48 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-14:
You might kid your idiot mates across the ditch with your ham-fisted comparisons, Tackler, but all you’re really doing is entrenching the belief I have that you know jack-shite about cricket (or simply wish to argue for the sake of an argument..and trash South Africa(ns) in the process).
In Test cricket, it is all about averages and strike rates (for bowlers). The former is calculated on the runs conceded for every wicket taken, the latter the number of balls he bowls for every wicket.
The rest is irrelevant. To trot it out is a feeble attempt to cloud the issue.
Steyn’s average is 23.13, Lee’s 30.81 and Andre Nel’s 31.86.
Steyn’s strike rate is 39.2, Lee’s 53.3 and Nel’s 62.0.
I’d say that puts Lee where he belongs…a golden boy, a marketing tool for Aussie cricket, but, ultimately a rather average bowler, closer in performance to Andre Nel than to Dale Steyn, who is so far ahead it is scary.
That’s the true story, Tackler, hard as it may be to swallow.
7 Jul 2010, 23:03 pm
Lee’s test career is over. Steyn’s is only halfway through. As in any activity, there is a tailing off of your performance as you pass the peak of your trajectory and head off into the decline that eventually sees you replaced.
Lee’s numbers — and the useless Nel’s — include this tail-off, as their parabolas are now fully-drawn. Steyn’s post-peak downslope is yet to be sketched in. When it is eventually completed, it will resemble these other bowlers.
(And, just in passing, I’ve already forgotten more about cricket than you’ll ever know, sonny.)
8 Jul 2010, 04:37 am
(And, just in passing, I’ve already forgotten more about cricket than you’ll ever know, sonny.)
You could have fooled me with your response at 14, Oom.
Or perhaps it has something to do with your advanced age and the onset of Alzheimer’s?
By the way, when you rise from you mid-afternoon slumber at Wellington’s Golden Pond Village, drool on your shirt front, check out Lee’s averages over his career.
They were NEVER hot, just like Nel’s.
He was fast, yes, but seldom got it where it needed to be to (a) be dangerous and scary and (b) take wickets.
Reminds me of a thick quick down PE way named James Carse (originally a Zimbo if I remember correctly) who occasionally bolwed an unplayable delivery, the other 99% was pure shite.
Another kak argument, Oom. Lekker slaap, hoer?
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