http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 – (Part 2) - Opinion
Such spells are needed in the pocket sized version of the game which is known as ‘T20 cricket’. The Proteas are by no means, billed as favourites by any erudite expert to lift this year’s ICC World T20, due to their history of failing in major tournaments. They have also not been able to win any crunch game in the previous editions of the ICC World T20 at home, in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DW-Steyn-c1409 would have a key role to play, ensuring that South Africa would be able to win crunch games.
Steyn is definitely not ordinary in this format. He boasts one of the most astonishing averages for a bowler in T20 cricket history, which is just a paltry, 17.87 in as many as 23 ODIs for his country. He has a tally of 31 wickets to his name and a ferocious spell of 4 wickets for just 9 runs as one of his career highlights. In light of this, opposition batsmen would find hitting Steyn as a cumbersome task. Even the most formidable strikers of the cricket ball such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CH-Gayle-c1221 would find it hard to pepper him, given that he is deadly accurate and has the ability to swing the ball both ways. His ability to bowl toe crushing Yorkers however, is the reason why Steyn would be the ‘go-to’ man for South Africa in a crisis situation.
Barring Steyn, no other South African bowler could deploy the Yorker with such dead accuracy and with consistency. The likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LL-Tsotsobe-c1842 are easy targets for opposition batsmen, because of their one dimensional approach. Steyn however, ensures that targeting him borders on the preposterous, as he could make the old ball reverse swing substantially. The problem for other teams is the threat that he poses with the new ball is equally diabolical.
South Africa is pinned up against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in Group C in the tournament. The game against Sri Lanka could well and truly pave out as the game of the tournament, and the Proteas would be aiming to restrict the run flow from the South Asian batsmen which often come at a haemorrhaging rate. For that to happen however, their trump card Dale Steyn would need to click, and pick up crucial wickets, which could derail the safe progression of runs from arguably, the most diabolical batting line up in the tournament. Similarly, Steyn could be used as a key weapon to thwart the possibility of an embarrassing upset, by rocking Zimbabwe in their encounter. The latter would be fancying their chances over the Proteas given their choking mentality and the fact that they recently beat them in a Tri-Series played at home.
Without Steyn, the South African pace battery for this World Cup lacks venom, despite the presence of Morkel, who did well in this year’s IPL. If he clicks at the right time, the Proteas could well and truly see off games that they had historically struggled to pull off in T20 cricket. He is indispensable in every sense of the word and would be the key man for South Africa’s progression in yet another global tournament.
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