Dale Steyn watches his delivery on the fourth day of their second test against New Zealand. Photo / AP
It will be of little consolation to New Zealand's batsmen, but they experienced bowling eminence first-hand at Centurion this week.
Their deficiencies were prodded, permeated and ultimately exposed by Dale Willem Steyn, arguably test cricket's best pace bowler.
The 33-year-old's absence in recent months with groin and shoulder injuries coincided
with South Africa slipping to seventh in the test rankings. After Steyn's match figures of eight for 99 from 36.2 overs, the Proteas were back at No5.
His 26th test five-wicket bag came in the second innings, advancing him to 11th on the list of top wicket-takers. He moved to 416 dismissals, overtaking Wasim Akram's 414. Steyn sits five behind South African record-holder Shaun Pollock.
A look at the strike rate column of the 13 players to take more than 400 test wickets reveals he is an outlier. Twelve of the bowling luminaries took between 51 (Sir Richard Hadlee) and 69 (Harbhajan Singh) balls to get each wicket; Steyn takes 41. That's effectively one a spell.
