Canberra – With the series locked at one match apiece, Dale Steyn is expecting nothing less than a typically bruising and hostile response from Australia in tomorrow’scrucial third One-Day International.
Steyn has been at the centre of the latest tension between the Australian and South African teams following a run-in with Michael Clarke in the Cape Town Test in March. Like Clarke did in Perth last week, Steyn, speaking for the first time on this leg of the tour this morning, sought to play down the affair saying the media had made the two look like screaming “school girls”.
Steyn, who has previously said Clarke owed him an apology, would not go into the specifics of what the Australia captain said to him in that tense final hour at Newlands as Australia closed in on victory, giving a typically colourful explanation as to why: “I can’t mention it now. It’s why I said ‘if I see him we’ll just have a normal chat’, it’s got nothing to do about ‘hell, I’ll see you in the car park and we’ll beat the crap out of each other’… it’s got nothing to do with that.”
Clarke will play no further part in this series owing to a hamstring injury, but has been clear in his thoughts that Australia must play a tough brand of cricket, even rebuking one of his own players, Steve Smith, when he thought the youngster was being too friendly with a Pakistan opponent recently. Steyn is clearly trying to bury the hatchet between the two, but in general, relations between the two teams remain tense.
“I’ve always come across an aggressive Australian side,” said Steyn. “Of all the sides that play Test cricket, the Aussies are well known for being ‘in-your-face’ kind of cricketers, bullying teams. I don’t play my cricket like that – I may look like that on the field, but I’m a fast bowler, it’s what you’ve got to do. I don’t quite agree with the way some of the things are done. I think there’s a line, I try and stay close to that line, but never overstepping it and if I do overstep it, I’ll be the first guy to put my hand up and say I’m sorry and go and do whatever it is I need to do to go and fix that.”
South Africa hasn’t taken a backward step of course, and in recent years as the contests between the two have grown closer, so the intensity has increased. Against that background there’s also the attacking methodology South Africa seek to utilise in the One-Day game, an approach Steyn leads, with the ball.
“I’ve spoken to AB (de Villiers), because in the last couple of years I felt it’s been difficult for me. I want to strike but at the same time I also want to contain, which means that you’re bowling two different kinds of lengths.”
A containing length, Steyn explained, was short enough to tuck up the batsmen, but not short enough for him to play the pull or free his arms to cut. “It’s never really a wicket-taking length, you are waiting for the batsmen to make a mistake,” he said.
The more attacking strategy involves bowling as if he were playing a Test match – short, at the body, mixed with a fuller length looking to hit the top of off-stump. “Speaking to AB, he wants me to go for it now, he’s given me a licence to try and hit the stumps and to attack the body a little more. I feel I might go for a few runs, which is fine, that happens, because you’re bowling some boundary deliveries, but you might pick up a few more wickets too.
“I’m looking forward to another one-day game, thinking on my feet and figuring out a way of being the beast, especially in conditions I’ve never been in before, which is exciting,” concluded Steyn.
Tomorrow’s match starts at 5.20am SA time. - The Star