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Dale Steyn -Greatest of All Time

Where does Dale Steyn rank as a pace bowler?


  • Total voters
    75

Gob

International Coach
He's better than Mcgrath and Ambrose. He career coincided with the most batting friendly era since WW2 and still he was head and shoulders above his contempories. If Ambrose and Mcgrath bowled in Steyn's era their average would be worse than him.
Haha no

McGrath easily had the worst conditions from 2000 to 2006
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
The only guy I could see joining those 4 in that top tier might be Wasim as a wild card, hard to compare him with so many confounding factors.
Yeah Wasim's hard to rate. Averaged a little bit more than the other greats but had greater longevity. Had no support in the field but took a disproportionate amount of tailend wickets. He's 8th for me but it's such a balancing act when thinking about him.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Yeah Wasim's hard to rate. Averaged a little bit more than the other greats but had greater longevity. Had no support in the field but took a disproportionate amount of tailend wickets. He's 8th for me but it's such a balancing act when thinking about him.
Yeah, and he has an incredibly high peer rating (as opposed to ICC peak rating) that its extremely hard to rank him accurately. Case in point


I should tag @Pap Finn Keighl here actually
 

Adorable Asshole

International Regular
Haha no

McGrath easily had the worst conditions from 2000 to 2006
U r conveniently forgetting he played half of his career in an extremely bowling friendly era

Yeah, and he has an incredibly high peer rating (as opposed to ICC peak rating) that its extremely hard to rank him accurately. Case in point


I should tag @Pap Finn Keighl here actually
Akram i contend was the most talented fast bowler but he didn't had the drive nor the discipline to be the best. Mcgrath on the other hand was fiercely competitive and always gave his best.
 
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Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
(Barnes)
Marshall
Hadlee
McGrath
Ambrose
Steyn

I won't vote as I don't know what to do with Barnes. Steyn is top 5 without Barnes (5th), but top 10 with Barnes (6th).

Then:
Garner
Lillee
Trueman
Imran
Wasim
Donald
 
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subshakerz

International Coach
I was a big Steyn fan during his playing days but never got the impression I am watching one of the five best pacers ever.

For whatever reason, his reputation among posters has enhanced since retirement when it's more about stats and WPM. The fact remains that Steyn was far easier to score runs off, so if he wasn't taking wickets, he was a big liability.

At various points in his career, he was destroyed by Sehwag, Warner, KP, Clarke and others.

When I watched Ambrose or McGrath, a batsman taking them down would be an event. With Steyn, it was a regular occurrence. He lacked consistency.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Thing with Cummo is that he doesn't do 'okay you bois sit back imma run through this ****s to get a day off tommo' as often as Dale

Other than that *** is prob equal to Dale in most regards and even more consistent at times. In fact IIRC from all the great bowlers I've seen, Steyn seems to bowl the most average type spells. But ofcourse he makes up to that by bowling one of those earth shattering spells more often than anyone else

Hey this gave me an idea..wait you guys
It is interesting that Steyn and Cummins both were/are mediocre white ball bowlers despite being test stars.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Yeah Wasim's hard to rate. Averaged a little bit more than the other greats but had greater longevity. Had no support in the field but took a disproportionate amount of tailend wickets. He's 8th for me but it's such a balancing act when thinking about him.
Wasim also suffered from debuting early.

But overall he should have done more.
 
Barnes
Hadlee
Marshall
McGrath
Steyn

Steyn has a good argument to be #2 bowler and Barnes as a quick(without off break and leg break) isn’t a complete bowler as he was.
So,Steyn is arguably no.1 quick bowler of all time.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Barnes
Hadlee
Marshall
McGrath
Steyn

Steyn has a good argument to be #2 bowler and Barnes as a quick(without off break and leg break) isn’t a complete bowler as he was.
So,Steyn is arguably no.1 quick bowler of all time.
Not averaging over 30 in England he isn't. That stat itself should disqualify him from the top 5.
 

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