Steyn in the fourth innings

[Uppercut]

Steyn definitely didn't bowl badly during the run-chase, he gave away a few more boundaries than usual but he still looked like he could take a wicket at any time. Actually I thought the attack as a whole was pretty unlucky over the course of the run chase, Haddin's innings was unbelievably scrappy, Khawaja's wasn't too solid either and they had a late lbw shout against Cummins that could have gone either way. It was quite a contrast from the third innings of the test before when Australia managed to miss all of the straight deliveries and nick anything that was missing the stumps.

But that's why breaking down an attack's statistics by innings over the course of a handful of tests is probably just a waste of time.

 

[grecian]

Steyn definitely didn't bowl badly during the run-chase, he gave away a few more boundaries than usual but he still looked like he could take a wicket at any time. Actually I thought the attack as a whole was pretty unlucky over the course of the run chase, Haddin's innings was unbelievably scrappy, Khawaja's wasn't too solid either and they had a late lbw shout against Cummins that could have gone either way. It was quite a contrast from the third innings of the test before when Australia managed to miss all of the straight deliveries and nick anything that was missing the stumps.

But that's why breaking down an attack's statistics by innings over the course of a handful of tests is probably just a waste of time.

About as much of a waste of time as using statements like "looked like he could take a wicket at any time" TBH. I thought they bowled poorly myself, didn't make them play enough. Morkel particularly poor, but I'm not a fan of his in particular.

 

[Neil Pickup]

isn't bowling out the best strategy?

You can't try to bowl magic balls and take a wicket every ball, though, because you'll over-strain and give away boundary balls. Arguably, the best bet, the way England do it, the way McGrath did it (I love writing that) is to keep discipline, give nothing away, in the knowledge that the wickets will come without your forcing the pace.

 

[Uppercut]

About as much of a waste of time as using statements like "looked like he could take a wicket at any time" TBH. I thought they bowled poorly myself, didn't make them play enough. Morkel particularly poor, but I'm not a fan of his in particular.

Meh. They could have bowled better for sure but from what I saw they had the Aussies in enough trouble that you'd expect them to win the game more often than not.

It's interesting that you thought they didn't bowl straight enough when others in the thread thought they were trying too hard to bowl wicket-taking deliveries and didn't have enough patience.

 

[Top_Cat]

For a scrappy knock, he hit some clean balls, though. He and Mitch were given lots to hit.

That said don't think they bowled badly at all. Tactics a bit off maybe.

 

[Cabinet96]

Steyn's stats certainly suggest he bowls worse but they've been a few occasions when he's bowled really well, constantly beaten the bat but not been rewarded. A good example of this was his spell to Collingwood in CT a couple of years back. He also beat Cummins five times in one over the other night.

Yeah that sprung to mind. Was a terrific spell. Colly surviving that was probably the difference between South Africa drawing the series and winning it.