Dale Steyn credits Graeme Smith for making him 'World's No.1 Test bowler for 2000 days'

Dale Steyn has been South Africa's leading fast bowler for over a decade now. Even though age has caught up to him, he still remains as lethal as he was back in the day. Dale Steyn is South Africa's leading wicket-taker in Tests with 439 scalps to his name. The Proteas pacer called it a day from the longest format from the game in August 2019.

Dale Steyn enjoyed the most successful phase of career under Graeme Smith's captaincy. Dale Steyn remained the No. 1 Test bowler for 2,358 days between 2008 and 2014 when Graeme Smith was the captain.

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Dale Steyn credits Graeme Smith for his success in Tests

Recently, in a Sky Sports interview with England pacer James Anderson, former captain Nasser Hussain and ex-batsman Rob Key, Dale Steyn acknowledged Graeme Smith's contribution in his career. He said that he was quite spoilt when he first played for South Africa but he had a good captain in Graeme Smith. Dale Steyn further said that he felt for guys like Morne Morkel and Paul Harris, who would do the donkey work by building up the pressure and eventually get a wicket.

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Dale Steyn added that when the rest of the bowlers would see an opportunity to sneak two or three wickets, Graeme Smith would take them out of the attack and put the ball in his hand. Dale Steyn also said that those 2,000 days that he spent as the No. 1 Test bowler was because of Graeme Smith's recipe of success. Dale Steyn reckoned that Smith would use everyone else to do all the hard work and then he would put the ball in his hand and he delivered. Dale Steyn mentioned that it was because of a calculated decision by a captain who used him well.

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Dale Steyn also credited former Proteas wicketkeeper Mark Boucher for his success. He said that he had the best wicket-keeper in the world, Mark Boucher. Dale Steyn added that whenever Boucher saw something that was wrong, he would run over to him and firstly swear at him because that was Boucher’s way of doing things and then he’d say to him that he has noticed his left arm is falling away or he is too straight compared to last week. Steyn further said that it was always good to have that person who was there for him all the time.

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IMAGE COURTESY: ICC-CRICKET.COM