Dale Steyn can force an opponent’s heart to beat a little faster, his eyes to watch a little closer and his reflexes to react a little quicker and that’s only from the other end of a crease. Steyn’s reputation as among the most consistently fast, accurate and incisive in his trade demands something else and that’s what his captain is asking for.
“He is a guy that has played enough cricket, he is one of the world’s best and I think he deserves a bit of respect,” AB de Villiers said of his premier paceman. “There’s an unwritten rule in cricket that if you are a youngster and you come on to the international scene, you have to prove that you belong there. Dale has proven that over the years and probably didn’t deserve some of the comments.”
The “comments” being referred to were made seven months ago, during Australia’s tour of South Africa when Steyn and Michael Clarke were involved in on-field chatter that was far from pleasant. Words were exchanged, physical contact became dangerously close and, subsequently, there was contrition from Clarke. Months later, Steyn revealed he had not personally received the apology, neither had he accepted it and that was all after the pair had met again, albeit briefly.
They came across each other in Zimbabwe, in a triangular series, from which Clarke had to leave early because of injury. Now that they will meet again, the ill feeling has dominated the build-up, even as de Villiers tried to play it down. “I think it’s been blown out of proportion. I don’t think it’s a huge thing,” de Villiers said. “It’s probably something that Dale thought was a bit unnecessary at the time. I think he has moved on from it completely. I have no idea what Michael feels.”
Clarke’s expressed regret for his actions in the immediate aftermath and has since made public peace talk when the subject has been brought up. But he has also promised Australia will not be silenced and South Africa have taken note of that too. “Even though he has apologised at times, he has come out quite hard at times, so I don’t know where he stands and I don’t really care for that matter,” de Villiers said.
“All that matters is that Dale has moved on and is ready to perform for us. What happens on the field for me stays on the field. We are here to win. All the other banter and things that go on behind the scenes, I really don’t want to worry about.” De Villiers will leave that to Steyn, who has called “mature and old enough to handle it and move on and win cricket games for us”.
That’s something Steyn has always found the motivation to do, whether he has beef with the opposition or not. “He is always fired up,” de Villiers said. “Whether we play Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, he always wants to win games. He wants to take wickets and he wants to turn the games around, which he has done successfully in the past for us. I can’t see him changing that.”
Especially not on a surface which promises to give Steyn exactly the playground he most enjoys. The WACA’s pace has been talked up as adding the spice to an already hot series, so much so that South Africa are mulling an all-pace attack. But they are weighing that up against whether the conditions will entirely negate what they have identified as Australia’s softest spot: playing spin.
“It is an area where we feel they are not as strong as they can be,” de Villiers said. “Unfortunately we are playing here and I don’t think the wickets will suit spin bowling that much but we are playing a World Cup here so we are going to have to find a way to expose team’s weaknesses where we can. If we feel spin bowling can play a role at the WACA, we will try and expose that weakness in the Australian team.”
South Africa’s own weakness could be the balance of their side. With JP Duminy out with injury, not only have they lost a key member of the middle order but a part-time bowling option as well. “We will be limited with our sixth bowler,” de Villiers admitted. “We’ve got to go with five frontline bowlers and I’ll be a little short of that extra option.”
But one of those five first-choice members of the attack is Steyn and if he can invoke the same reaction from the Australia batsmen that he has before, from them and others, then de Villiers may have a bit less to worry about as his team enter what he called the “final stage” of their World Cup preparations.
