Dale Steyn retires from Test cricket

[Bolo]

Still think his 'battles' whith Hafeez were awesome

I'm generally not a fan of the idea that a bat is a bowler's bunny, or at least to the extent it's usually stated. But hafeez vs steyn was fairly unique.

The one dismissal in particular stands out to me, where steyn just started uncontrollably laughing after getting him out. Steyn knew he was a boss by that stage in his career, but he never had the arrogance or tried to get in bats heads.

But the laugh just said it all. You could see what was going through his head. From a guy that gets so pumped he breaks his shoulder taking wickets to react like that... he gave a 110% to his bowling but suddenly realized he was playing brian lara cricket against hafeez.

From just about any other bowler, I would have figured he was being a prick. But he is such a genuine guy that you knew there was no malice there.

One of my favourite memories of him.

 

[Bijed]

Michael Vaughan must be glad he was a fair bit older than Steyn because Steyn seems to have had a habit of bowling unplayable balls to him for some reason.

Not to take anything away from Steyn there, but Vaughan had a knack for getting bowled and making the ball look unplayable

 

[andmark]

Not to take anything away from Steyn there, but Vaughan had a knack for getting bowled and making the ball look unplayable

Yeah, that's true, but as Pup Clarke says, that first one was astonishing. I'm not sure any batsman of any ability should be expected to play it well. I think before the swing kicks in, the ball would've been on course to hit a fifth leg stump. In slow motion it appears Vaughan even had thoughts of a leg glance, and yet it hits top of off. Just a truly great bowl.

 

[Bahseph]

Never been a big stats man, but Cricinfo has a nice statistical summary of Steyn's career which surprised even me. And I've literally watched 95% of his games. Even in the last phase of his career with the injuries he was striking at under 50 and averaging 27.

 

[akilana]

That Steyn has the best sr ever. And it's debatable that Steyn is better than Ambrose. Steyn had a better sr but Amby had a better average.

He also took more wickets and more 5 wicket hauls in fewer matches.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Well then that should have been included as a caveat.

Well , no one cares about Abbas when rating Viv peerless in ODis.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Heh. This is from the "I'm not gonna apologize" incident.

 

[vcs]

Ew

Hope he insisted it was washed properly before signing it

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Who tf doesn't wear two sets of underwear when wearing a box? Cold plastic directly against my ****, no thanks

 

[Prince EWS]

Ew

Hope he insisted it was washed properly before signing it

Kane might have held the box while Steyn signed it so he didn't have to touch it.

 

[vcs]

Who tf doesn't wear two sets of underwear when wearing a box? Cold plastic directly against my ****, no thanks

Wish someone had given me this idea in my cricket playing days as a kid. The cold plastic felt awful.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Who tf doesn't wear two sets of underwear when wearing a box? Cold plastic directly against my ****, no thanks

Me. I also wore it when I was fielding.

 

[Daemon]

Who tf doesn't wear two sets of underwear when wearing a box? Cold plastic directly against my ****, no thanks

they have those jock strap things with the pouch, he was probably wearing one of those.

i usually slap it straight onto my **** and balls. sometimes I forget to wash it between games too.

 

[TheJediBrah]

they have those jock strap things with the pouch, he was probably wearing one of those.

i usually slap it straight onto my **** and balls. sometimes I forget to wash it between games too.

well, this. Do people wash their boxes? I've never even considered doing it. Definitely never worn 2 pears of underwear, I figure that's for blokes who need it to hold the box in because their junk doesn't fill it up sufficiently.

 

[stephen]

If your junk is touching the plastic you're in for a world of hurt. It's supposed to distribute the impact to your groin without impacting your junk at all.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I hit the ball with my bat rather than my wood so it's never been an issue

 

[GoodAreasShane]

they have those jock strap things with the pouch, he was probably wearing one of those.

i usually slap it straight onto my **** and balls. sometimes I forget to wash it between games too.

Yeah the do make specially designed ones with a pouch these days, not seen them here in Adelaide though.

Spending lots of money on flash new cricket gear in the vague hope it will make your game less ****e doesn't work.


Believe me I have tried

 

[Daemon]

Yeah the do make specially designed ones with a pouch these days, not seen them here in Adelaide though.

Spending lots of money on flash new cricket gear in the vague hope it will make your game less ****e doesn't work.


Believe me I have tried

It's the match fees and parking that are killing me more than the price of the gear these days

I spend $40 on fees and $5-10 on parking per game. That's like $5 per run I score.

 

[MrPrez]

I never needed to wash my box because I never wore it long enough for it to get noticeably dirty.

 

[subshakerz]

Dale Steyn definitely belongs in the top ten bowlers of all-time, but there are a few reasons I wouldn't put him in the top tier of Marshall, Hadlee and Mcgrath.

For one, while his strikerate is unusually low, his economy rate (3.25) is higher than the other all-timers. This indicates he was a blast-or-bust type of bowler, who if was not getting wickets consistently would be leaking runs, similar to Waqar.

The other reason is similar, in that Steyn had a tendency to produce one match-winning performance per series, yet be strangely absent outside of that. The examples that stick in mind is how ordinary he was in the test after Nagpur in 2010 or in the first two tests in Australia in 2012 before rocking it in Perth. The other all-timers were known for keeping it tight and quality even when they werent getting wickets.

Marshall has the perfect combo of exceptionally low average, low strikerate and low economy rate. Statistically and otherwise, I think he was the best pacer ever.