Can Jimmy Anderson back his statements about http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DW-Steyn-c1409? - Opinion
On the eve of the eagerly awaited Basil D' Oliveira Trophy of 2012,
English paceman Jimmy Anderson has come up with a statement which could raise a few eyebrows. His brazen castigation of the number one ranked bowler in the world from the opposition before the latter has even delivered, is a touch premature.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 would lose, brings into many questions that are left unaddressed. The premise for Anderson’s assertion may lie in his own good form, where the conditions in the UK, along with confronting lesser formidable
oppositions, have made him a force to be reckoned with. The bowler who he is censuring however, has been the most formidable player of his generation.
Steyn’s record against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the subcontinent has been remarkable, and in stark contrast to Anderson’s. His ability to generate seam, swing and bowl with pace on the most placid of wickets, will definitely
go down as an achievement. He could end up as a match winning trump card for South Africa in this series.
His pin point accuracy has proven hot to handle for the Englishmen and despite the fact that he hasn’t played test cricket for some time, believing that he would lose is more an assertion of frustration than logic on part of Anderson.
Conspiracy theorists would be quick to point out that Anderson’s claim comes from the Headingley Test of 2008, where he received a severe blow on the helmet which stung him into action. That only prompted Anderson to drill the ball back down to Steyn which
meant that the Proteas paceman had to grapple with an injury. Pleasantries were exchanged between both players in that Test match which gave the game a completely different dimension altogether. Yet, ironically, Anderson has not been short of praise on Steyn
where he believes that he would definitely be a threat. What is irksome is that he believes that a threatening case study would go down on the losing side.
There is considerable amount of daylight between both players as well, which makes this statement open to skepticism. Anderson is ranked 3rd in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Test Rankings, whereas Steyn is Ranked well above him at 1st. With a point difference
of 101 between their ratings, Anderson’s one dimensional bowling approach is a case in point. The reason why Steyn is ranked number one is due to his ability to extract seam movement everywhere and trouble the batsmen in conditions which are unfamiliar to
him. Anderson on the other hand, has had a terrible record in the subcontinent, where the likes of the Indian batsmen managed to use his lack of pace and limited movement to suit their style of stroke play.
The danger that Steyn poses is of a completely different nature. On a bone dry surface at Karachi in 2007, he managed to swing the ball dramatically and snared 5 Pakistani wickets for 56 runs in a nail biting finish. Anderson’s reputation as a bowler who
could snare 7 wickets on surfaces which are conducive to seam bowling and be peppered otherwise, makes him considerably meek in front of Steyn, and not much is likely to change when the competition eventually unfolds at the Oval.
In truth, premature statements are never the right way to go about a well charged series. Spewing them for the sake of confidence may be acceptable to a certain extent but using them to target a better bowler is not the call of the hour for this Englishman.
Another ‘Steyn-less’ performance could silence him.
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