Fast-bowler Dale Steyn on Tuesday set up a series-clinching 204-run win for South Africa on the fourth day of the second and final Test against New Zealand at SuperSport Park, then said he was still not quite at his best after a lengthy injury lay-off.
Playing in his first Test in eight months after recovering from groin and shoulder injuries, Steyn took three wickets with his first 11 deliveries of the second innings and finished with 5-33 as New Zealand were bowled out for 195, despite a defiant innings of 76 by Henry Nicholls.
“I’m still a long way from where I want to be,” Steyn said. “There was a lot of assistance in this wicket and I put the ball in the right spots enough times to ask questions, but I want to get the pace up a bit more.”
Photo: Reuters
“Overs under the belt and a little more strength work and I’ll eventually get there,” he said.
Steyn took his total of wickets to 416 in 84 Tests, going past Pakistan’s Wasim Akram into 11th place on the world all-time list, only five behind ninth-placed Shaun Pollock, South Africa’s leading wicket-taker.
He said going past Pollock and setting records did not motivate him.
“It really doesn’t bother me,” Steyn said. “I’m not going to sit on my couch when I’m 70 and go, I was the leading wicket-taker. I’ll remember tonight [Tuesday]; I will remember beating Australia in Australia; I will remember winning in England and hopefully I will remember winning a World Cup. I just love this game.”
Stand-in captain Faf du Plessis said it had been an almost perfect Test for South Africa.
“If I had written a script it would have been almost like this,” the batsman said.
He said South Africa’s plunge from top of the Test rankings to No. 7 — they climbed two places after Tuesday’s win — had prompted some soul searching.
“We had some real good discussions and the guys took it onboard,” he said. “We’ve found our passion again.”
It looked as though it would be easy for the hosts when Steyn and Vernon Philander ripped through New Zealand’s top four batsmen for seven runs inside the first four overs of the innings.
However, the left-handed Nicholls, playing in his sixth Test match, displayed courage and concentration in making his second Test half-century and highest score to delay South Africa’s celebrations.
He found a similarly determined partner in B.J. Watling, who made 32 in a two-hour, 68-run fifth-wicket partnership.
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