Courageous, aggressive, and stubborn, Dale Steyn is one of the best seamers to ever be a part of the game. He could swing the ball away from batsmen sharply and had every delivery in his armory Yorker, inswinger, slower, etc. Steyn is one of the few bowlers, who has taken wickets in every condition. That is why every Proteas has always recalled Steyn, whenever they needed a breakthrough. Dale Steyn is celebrating his 39th birthday today, let’s talk about the interesting facts about Dale Steyn, which will amuse you.
Interesting Facts About Dale Steyn
- Dale William Steyn was born on 27th June 1983 in a small town called Phalaborwa, South Africa.
- Steyn has got a few nicknames like Phalaborwa Express, Steyn Gun, and Steyn Remover.
- In his childhood, Dale Steyn used to like skateboarding. But after moving to Pretoria, he decided to be a cricketer.
- Dale Steyn made his first-class debut for Northerns in 2003, and having played only 8 matches, he broke into the South African Test squad for the series against England. In his first match, he castled English opener Marcus Trescothick with a perfect in-swinger.
- Steyn played his first ODI match for Africa Xi before wearing the South African jersey in 2005. He could only take 2 wickets in the three match series against Asia Xi.
- The South African legend has the best bowling strike rate (42.3) in tests among the bowlers, who has bowled over 10000 deliveries in the format.
- Steyn is the first seamer to take a fifer against all the test playing nations.
- The 5.8 ft raw pacer is the highest wicket-taker for South Africa in tests, with 439 wickets in 93 tests.
- Apart from bowling exceptionally, Dale was a quite good tailender also. He could smash the bowlers for a few boundaries.
- Dale Steyn held the No 1 Test ranking for the most times by a bowler, 2008 to 2014. It exhibits how good he was as a bowler.
- The South African quick made his T20 debut in 2007 against New Zealand. He has dominated the shortest format of the game also. He has grabbed 64 wickets in 47 T20 international games.
- One of the saddest days of Steyn’s life was the semi-finals against New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup. Kiwis needed 11 runs in the last over of Dale Steyn and Grant Elliot finished the innings with a six.
- Every fast bowler goes through a patch of injuries in his career. So it was no different with Steyn. After the age of 30, he sustained many injuries and missed a lot of cricket, including the 2019 World Cup.
- Despite being one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, Dale Steyn never won an ICC trophy with South Africa.
- The International Cricket Council honored Steyn with the “ICC Test Cricketer of The Year” award for having a great red ball season, 74 wickets in 13 matches.
- In 2012, known as “White Lightning” Allan Donald marked Dale Steyn as the best South African pacer of all time.
- Steyn has played for four County Cricket Clubs in his professional career- Esses (2005), Warwickshire (2007), Glamorgan (2016), and Hampshire (2018).
- Dale Steyn’s fastest ball in international cricket was 155.7 km/hr, which he clocked against New Zealand.
- Steny played a short duration role in a Hollywood movie called “Blended” in 2014.
- Apart from playing cricket, Steyn is fond of fishing and surfing. We can see the pictures of his fishing and surfing on his social media handle.
- Dale Steyn got married to South African model Jeanne Kietzmann in 2011.
- Steyn’s jersey number is 8.
- His estimated net worth is $14 million.
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