2nd Test: Pakistan v South Africa at Abu Dhabi - Nov 20-24, 2010

[GoldenAsif]

Re: 2nd Test: Pakistan v South Africa at Abu Dhabi - Nov 20-24, 2010

@Iconoclast

Even Asif and Amir would not have been able to do much on this wicket, i doubt even with them we could bowl them out twice on these placid wickets. Both rely on seam and swing, which wasnt there.

I havent seen steyn a lot in tests, so cant say where he stands in comparison to Mcgrath, Wasim, Waqar but he bowled well in these conditions. He beat the beat, bowled good short balls.

From what I have seen of Steyn, he does not swing the ball much. You need to be able to swing esp. reverse swing the ball to succeed on lifeless tracks and I have n’t seen much of that from Steyn

The real test of a great fast bowler (cf. pacy bouncy tracks for a great batsman) is on flat tracks and on such pitches, Steyn is no more effective than another decent bowler with less pace

Hence among his contemporaries, I rate Malcolm Marshall, Imran Khan and Michael Holding above Lillee and Hadlee because the former were equally effective on pacy tracks and slow unhelpful sub-continental pitches. Infact both Lillee and Hadlee deliberately avoided touring India and Pakistan

And to add the ability to swing or reverse swing the ball thru the air is independent of the pitch. Weather conditions such as overcast, breezy conditions however do help swing bowling