We did an article about the best bowling performances of Ravichandran Ashwin in test cricket and that got me thinking that we should do more such specific format articles and boy today we have a treat for you. In these separate articles we have chosen 3 of the best fast bowlers in modern times and we will take a look at their best bowling performances in test cricket and we are starting with arguably the best daat bowler across all conditions and the best that South Africa has ever seen and he is Dale Steyn. Let’s talk about his records in test cricket below
Dale Steyn played 93 Test Matches for South Africa during his illustrious career in which he picked up 439 test wickets which is in the Top 10 all time for most Wickets ever taken in test cricket. He has an astonishing average of 22.95 throughout his test career and he had a strike rate of 42.39. He has taken 26 Five wicket hauls and 5 times he has taken 10 wickets in a test match. So, let’s see the top 5 Best bowling performances of his in test cricket.
5/47 vs New Zealand (2006)
This was the first 5 wicket haul for Dale Steyn in Test cricket and it came in the fourth Innings of this test match which helped South Africa to win this match against a very good team in New Zealand. He had already taken 2 wickets in the first innings but in the all important 4th innings he stood up and got his first Fiver and only gave away 47 runs in 17 overs and as a result South Africa won this match by 126 runs. A young Dale Steyn had announced himself to the cricketing world.
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6/72 vs West Indies (2008)
This was one of the best bowling performances in the career of Dale Steyn and it came against West Indies in 2008 and by that time he had become one of the best fast bowlers in world cricket. This was a dominant performance as he just kept picking Wickets at regular intervals and in the Third innings of the match he got 6 Wickets for 72 runs in 21.5 overs and South Africa won this test match by an Innings and 100 Runs. Dale Steyn was firing on all cylinders at that time.
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5/87 and 5/67 vs Australia (2008)
This was one of the best overseas bowling performances by a fast Bowler in a long time and Dale Steyn took 5 wickets in both innings of this test match and that is the reason this is on this list and most importantly South Africa won this year's match by 9 wickets. In the first innings when Australia were batting Dale Steyn Bowled his heart out for 29 overs and got a 5 wicket haul for his efforts and he made sure Australia did not cross 400. Then in the 3rd innings of this test match Dale Steyn bettered his performance as he took 5/67 this time in 20.2 overs and it was because of his efforts that South Africa were able to win this match so easily.
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7/51 vs India (2010)
This is the best bowling performance by Dale Steyn in his tear career in a test innings and it came against India in India which is one of the toughest things for a fast bowler. Dale Steyn just Bowled great line and lengths and all the Indian batters got out to him. He got 7 wickets in this innings giving away only 51 runs in 16.4 overa and as a result South Africa won this away test match by an innings and 6 runs. Dale Steyn was an all conditions fast bowler. He was proving it everywhere.
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3/66 and 5/33 vs New Zealand (2016)
Even after playing tear cricket for more than a decade Dale Steyn was still picking up wickets against all opponents and in every condition and the last performance in this list is against New Zealand which was also the last 5 wicket haul in his glorious test career. He got 3 Wickets in the first batting innings of New Zealand giving away 66 runs in 20 overs but his best of the match was saved for the 4th innings when New Zealand needed 400 to win and Dale Steyn ripped through the batting line-up and got 5 Wickets for just 33 runs in 16.2 overs and South Africa won this test match by a massive 204 runs.
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