Dale Steyn among the top three pacers of all time, says Waqar Younis

[Coronis]

Really wish people would get over Steyn not using his speed every spell. He starts off late 130s to maximise swing then comes back with the fast spell, with the even faster ball up his sleeve if he wants to hurry them up some more. It's tactical.

Great speed =/= great bowling ffs. You don't win cricket games by only bowling the fastest delivery of the match.

Wait wait wait..... so Brett Lee isn't better than Glenn McGrath?

 

[Quaggas]

Steyn doesn't bowl well on flat tracks? Really? He doesn't take wickets with the new ball? Wow. That has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever read on here.

In Steyn's time India and England have had their best ever batting line-ups (arguably that is) and he has tasted great success against them. He pwned Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman, Gambhir on an absolute road in Nagpur and had the wood over Dravid too when they came here in 2010-11. He was instrumental in winning the series against England in England who were the number one side then. Had tremendous success against the likes of KP, Bell, Trott etc. Interesting that the Nagpur test also was a battle for supremacy as India were the number one test team then. He is a big game player, clearly. Who else? He's done well against Australia and while the Australia that Steyn played the all conquering side they were a few years prior he's had great success against the likes of Ponting and Clarke. Sri Lanka have also had arguably their best batting line up in Steyn's time (all terrible away from home but still) but he's gone okay against Jayawardene and Sanga.

Steyn has done it all. He has an average comparable to most greats in an era of flat pitches, broader bats, shorter boundaries and rules skewed in the favour of the batsmen. He has a scary strike rate, which I believe is almost unmatched? Correct me if I am wrong. He has been a big factor in RSA being the best side in the world, make no mistake. He has done it without bottlecaps and he has done it everywhere. He is gun.

exsultate, jubilate, alleluja. Required reading.

 

[smash84]

Really wish people would get over Steyn not using his speed every spell. He starts off late 130s to maximise swing then comes back with the fast spell, with the even faster ball up his sleeve if he wants to hurry them up some more. It's tactical.

Great speed =/= great bowling ffs. You don't win cricket games by only bowling the fastest delivery of the match.

Wait wait wait..... so Brett Lee isn't better than Glenn McGrath?

 

[Chrish]

Bump..

 

[Salamuddin]

He's number 4 in the list of best bowlers that I've seen.

1) Marshall 2) Ambrose 3) Mcgrath 4) Steyn

 

[honestbharani]

Awta.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Among those I've seen:

McGrath
Steyn
Ambrose
Wasim

So, top 3 of all time is definitely a possibility

 

[ankitj]

1) Marshall, 2) Hadlee, 3) Ambrose, 4) McGrath, 5) Steyn

Barnes somewhere in between if classified as a pacer.

 

[weldone]

1) Marshall, 2) Hadlee, 3) Ambrose, 4) McGrath, 5) Steyn

Barnes somewhere in between if classified as a pacer.

Those will be my top 6 too, but in different order

 

[Chrish]

Perhaps it's our nostalgia and bias toward our own childhood heroes that prevents us from rating him higher.. Otherwise considering his 400 wickets at the SR of less than 42, there is no reason why he isn't as good or even better than guys like Ambrose or Hadlee.. Just my 2 c

 

[indiaholic]

Second best in tests for me. Will rank him lower because he was not good enough in ODIs.

 

[honestbharani]

I am biased towards his style of bowling and match-winning over the metronomic consistency of McGrath and Ambrose... Therefore..


Marshall
Steyn
Ambrose
McGrath


among the ones I have seen.

 

[kyear2]

For me

Marshall, McGrath, Steyn, Hadlee, Ambrose, Lillee.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Find it pretty incredible that Steyn has as many wickets as Wasim /Ambrose despite having played 20 odd test fewer than then.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

The most incredible thing about Steyn is that he averages 23 in an era where bowlers of the quality of Southee, Anderson and Morkel can barely get under 30.

 

[Pratters]

McGrath/Donald/Akram higher than Steyn for me. Have never rated Steyn as highly as some of the others. I really like how he gives it his all in his deliveries. I can't explain it. It's just that he is lethal at times but his deliveries, when he is not as lethal don't come at the batsmen like Donald's. Donald was the aggressive, real deal for me. In the 90s, he had a strike rate of 47 or so. That's unbelievable. Waqar had it for a period of time but not sustained through the career. Donald has a bad record v Australia in Australia. Big deal. Steyn has a similarly poor record v Australia in Australia and an over all poor record v England which have been one of the stronger test teams of the last decade or so. Donald averages 16 in India in a period when India were very impressive at home.

 

[Cruxdude]

From the players I have seen I would rate Steyn as second only to Mcgrath.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Steyn has a similarly poor record v Australia in Australia and an over all poor record v England which have been one of the stronger test teams of the last decade or so. Donald averages 16 in India in a period when India were very impressive at home.

BS. You just looked at Cricinfo's nation wise breakup didn't you?

Steyn has produced two series winning spells in Australia, at Melbourne 2008 and Perth 2012. Considering he's bowled on the flattest Australian pitches ever, that's a fine effort. And vs England, Steyn's series in 2012 was awesome. An average of 29 for that series looks merely ok, but he bowled brilliantly. He was constantly threatening, and was easily the best bowler on show in a series where Broad and Anderson got pummelled on their home turf. He was also excellent in the 09 series.

The reason his record vs England looks relatively bad is because it's skewed by his first series where he was raw and inaccurate. Ever wonder why Ambrose's record vs Pakistan is average? Because he played his debut series vs them when he was mediocre. Or why McGrath averages a mediocre by his standards 27 vs SA? That's right. First ever series he played was vs SA,where he only picked up 4 wickets in two matches. This leads to misleading conclusions about that player's overall performance vs a nation, like you're making here.

 

[jonbrooks]

Huge call from Waqar! I'd have at least the following well ahead of him (no particular order):

1) Hadlee
2) Marshall
3) Ambrose
4) McGrath
5) Akram
6) Pollock
7) Lillee

 

[smash84]

Well ahead?