Cricket South Africa | Player Profile

Dale Willem Steyn

Dale Steyn has maintained the Proteas’ tradition of producing some of the world’s great fast bowlers and has succeeded the likes of Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini as the leader of the South African attack. He is the complete package with athletic ability that enables him to bowl at high pace, to swing the ball late and to get it to skid through off the surface. Altogether it makes him a lethal package.

He took more than 80 wickets in the period between October, 2007, and August, 2008, to be named the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year for 2008. It also earned him the No. 1 ranking, a position he has held ever since, while he has been named in the ICC Test Team of the Year for the past 4 years.

He also has the highest strike rate (41) of any bowler who has taken more than 200 wickets. He was the fourth fastest to 200 wickets in terms of matches played and the second quickest to 250 in his 49th match, behind the legendary Dennis Lillee who took one match fewer.

One of the many highlights of his career came when he returned career best figures of 7/51 to bowl South Africa to an innings victory over India at Nagpur in 2010. He also became one of the few foreign fast bowlers to take 10 wickets in a Test match in India.

His match-winning performance at Melbourne in 2008 when he made 76 and shared a partnership of 180 for the 9th wicket with JP Duminy and took 10 wickets in the match is one of South Africa’s greatest all-round performances of all time.