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Dale Steyn

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Yeah look, you'd have to be an imbecile to think Sanga belongs in the argument with Ponting, let alone Tendulkar and Lara. Fine player though.
No you wouldn't. You'd be wrong but the bloke averages 58.76 over 128 tests ffs and his record is improving. Its not ridiculous.
 

Burgey

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No you wouldn't. You'd be wrong but the bloke averages 58.76 over 128 tests ffs and his record is improving. Its not ridiculous.
It is ridiculous. You have a practising certificate in the same jurisdiction as I do ffs. Sometimes ****s catch a lucky break.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
I'm not sure whether it was my imagination but it seemed to me that McGrath had lost a yard of pace by about 2004. Or at least extra bounce and carry to the keeper. This is not wholly unexpected as bowlers do get old.

So if I have to pick a McGrath for my ATG team then he would be from the late 90s when he was at his most lethal.
He was still sharp enough to crack KP's ribs in 2006 ffs.
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Steyn is just in the top ten for me, based on his awesome record. I would consider him the greatest strike bowler in history, in terms of having action spells where he can quickly win a match. It is incredible that in the last seven years, he has produced a match-winning spell in almost every series he has played, in every country, with 1-2 exceptions. The fact that you can have a series begin with the knowledge that he will almost surely win a match by his lonesome is a special feat.

However, the reason why I feel he is below Marshall, Hadlee and McGrath is that Steyn often goes missing for much of a series for no explicable reason, and then produces a match-winning spell out of nowhere. This happened in Australia in 2012-2013 and against India at home last year. He suddenly lacks penetration and consistency, whereas the other greats didnt seem to have this problem.

If you look at his career, you can see this trend, producing 1-test standout performance and then just decent/merely good in the rest. The best example I can think of was in India in 2011 when he was devastating in Nagpur and then in the next text seemed quite ordinary.
 
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Teja.

Global Moderator
Steyn is just in the top ten for me, based on his awesome record. I would consider him the greatest strike bowler in history, in terms of having action spells where he can quickly win a match. It is incredible that in the last seven years, he has produced a match-winning spell in almost every series he has played, in every country, with 1-2 exceptions. The fact that you can have a series begin with the knowledge that he will almost surely win a match by his lonesome is a special feat.

However, the reason why I feel he is below Marshall, Hadlee and McGrath is that Steyn often goes missing for much of a series for no explicable reason, and then produces a match-winning spell out of nowhere. This happened in Australia in 2012-2013 and against India at home last year. He suddenly lacks penetration and consistency, whereas the other greats didnt seem to have this problem.

If you look at his career, you can see this trend, producing 1-test standout performance and then just decent/merely good in the rest. The best example I can think of was in India in 2011 when he was devastating in Nagpur and then in the next text seemed quite ordinary.
I'd argue that when you're not bowling in a ridiculously awesome attack relative to conditions like SA in India, It's better for Steyn to take 2 7-fers in 2 innings in 4 tests over 2 tours and go missing for 3-4 innings as opposed to consistently spread out his 25ish wickets over the 4 tests. You win more matches that way. He basically killed India's chances in two tests in India completely and that was incredibly rare in the golden batting generation era. I honestly don't think he'd have been as useful for SA if he took the same amount of wickets at that low average in India but spread out his wickets over the matches. Do you think so?
 
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Chrish

International Debutant
In this dire era of flat wickets and small grounds, it's a crowning achievement to be peerless averaging 22 with SR of 42!

What a bowler! Feel privileged to see him play..
 

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