Graeme Smith is not an unbiased arbitrator and neither is he a man who leaves matters half-said. But he, at least, is in no doubt.
“I don’t think there is a match-up,” Smith told ESPNcricinfo. “Dale Steyn is by far the best fast bowler in the world, to me. The fastest to 400 wickets, he’s performed all around the world, not only in swinging conditions.
“For me there’s no greater bowler in the world that gets a sniff and is able to create an opportunity and win a game for a team.”
Smith was opining on a debate that is likely to course through the South Africa-England Test series, and already has done through the game for a while now, namely: who, for you, James Anderson or Steyn? (A calf injury has ruled Anderson out of the first Test in Durban, starting on Saturday, but he will likely still play a pivotal role in the series.)
“Jimmy, I have a lot of respect for him, a great swing bowler,” Smith continued. “He will play a key role in the series, because if he’s not picking up wickets he still holds the game with his ability to create pressure.”
Steyn is a former teammate, a fellow comrade, so Smith naturally would be inclined to place him higher. Steyn, after all, is responsible for Smith’s ultimate standing as captain.
But Smith’s personal battles with Anderson have probably also led him to that opinion.
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Of the 22 bowlers who dismissed Smith at least three times in Tests, his average per dismissal against Anderson (69.66 for six dismissals in 17 Tests) is his second highest of all. His overall average against Anderson (in all innings, dismissed by him or otherwise) is 68.50.
A number of fast bowlers have troubled Smith – Zaheer Khan, Mitchell Johnson, S Sreesanth, Chris Martin. But Anderson, strangely, is not really one of them. So, at that level, it also makes sense if he does not rate him as highly.
On numbers there is no contest. Steyn is superior – and vastly so – by almost any parameter with which you choose to judge. He takes each wicket nearly 16 balls faster than Anderson. His wickets, on average, are 6.5 runs cheaper than Anderson’s.
They both have over 400 wickets, but Steyn has reached every milestone along the way quicker than Anderson. Steyn took his 400th wicket in only his 80th Test, joint-second fastest. It took Anderson 104 Tests, 3rd-slowest in the 400-wicket group.
Steyn’s figures are not out of place in the last great age of fast bowling, alongside men such as Dennis Lillee, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, the two Ws (Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis) and the great West Indians. He has 25 five-wicket hauls and five 10-wicket hauls.
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Anderson’s are very much those of a modern pace bowler. Just a couple of 10-wicket hauls, less than 20 five-wicket hauls and an average that manages to just about stoop under 30. They are the figures of a time in which the game is skewed heavily towards batsmen.
Though it is receding, the popular view of Anderson is in line with Smith’s opinion – that he is a great “swing bowler” – which is actually a backhanded compliment.
It implies that he needs the right conditions to thrive in, an assessment that has been outdated for a number of years. He has done it in Australia (24 wickets in 2010/11), in India (12 wickets in 2012/13) and twice in the UAE (22 wickets in six Tests against Pakistan).
None of these countries are known to be conducive to swing, yet Anderson has succeeded and precisely because he is not just a swing bowler anymore. He was, easily, the outstanding, most complete fast bowler in the UAE this winter, with renewed zest to his older-ball reverse.
He can actually appear, at times, the more obviously artful bowler, only because his pace is not a distraction. The greatness of Steyn is that he is as artful and yet, when he has wanted, he has retained the ability to crank up his pace at no cost to the art – it is the melding of both that stands him out, as it has the greatest fast bowlers.
However each goes through the series – and both will be crucial to their side’s fortunes – at the end it will be difficult to argue with the gist of Smith’s assertion, but easier, perhaps, with how emphatically it has been pronounced.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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