Pace has always been the dreaded demon for Indian cricket. Speed – one burst of the arm and the red cherry travels at 145kph in the air – is something not a very accepted norm in Indian cricket. Bowlers like Malcolm Marshal, Curtly Ambrose, Walsh, Lee, Donald, troubled the famous Indian willows on our own soil, even when the wicket looked like shining bald heads.

Because pace is not our forte. We have grown up playing cricket on wickets where the ball comes at a leisurely 120 or 130kph, piling and stocking up runs in our barrel of reputation to enter the limelight of International cricket. So when an erstwhile unknown Abhimanyu Mithun hits the deck at 140kph, the rest of India wakes up to take notice. The domestic batsmen run for cover against Mithun, and the burly Royal Challenger emerges as the highest wicket taker in the domestic season.

But what about another Royal Challenger here? Yes, the name is Steyn, Dale Steyn. Lets say that previous statement in the classic “The name is Bond, James Bond style.” Because Steyn is 007 material – fiercely competitive, fast, pacey and wears a devilish smile while ripping through your defences.

Pace has always been the dreaded demon for Indian cricket. Speed – one burst of the arm and the red cherry travels at 145kph in the air – is something not a very accepted norm in Indian cricket. Bowlers like Malcolm Marshal, Curtly Ambrose, Walsh, Lee, Donald, troubled the famous Indian willows on our own soil, even when the wicket looked like shining bald heads.

Because pace is not our forte. We have grown up playing cricket on wickets where the ball comes at a leisurely 120 or 130kph, piling and stocking up runs in our barrel of reputation to enter the limelight of International cricket. So when an erstwhile unknown Abhimanyu Mithun hits the deck at 140kph, the rest of India wakes up to take notice. The domestic batsmen run for cover against Mithun, and the burly Royal Challenger emerges as the highest wicket taker in the domestic season.

But what about another Royal Challenger here? Yes, the name is Steyn, Dale Steyn. Lets say that previous statement in the classic “The name is Bond, James Bond style.” Because Steyn is 007 material – fiercely competitive, fast, pacey and wears a devilish smile while ripping through your defences.

Evident from his 10/51 match figures – fourth in his career – which caused the downfall of India’s ego of not losing a test match in the last 12 months at home. There are a breed of bowlers who just tries to keep things simple – bowl fast, hit the deck, unsettle the greatest of batsmen and then make the ball swing an inch here and there to pick up wickets.

Steyn is of that breed. He unsettled Murali Vijay with a vicious in-swinger and then foxed Sachin Tendulkar with a little short of length outswinger in the first innings. Add the one that did Wridhiman Saha in, and one gets how cunningly Steyn has prepared for this Indian tour. “I said before that a ball bowled at 145k, whether it's in Jo'burg or Nagpur, is still 145ks in the air. The plan was to hit the deck hard, with pace,” Steyn commented later in the post match press conference.



Simple isn’t it? But let’s not forget another Royal Challenger who really provided the platform for Steyn to put such a stellar performance – Jacques Kallis. Though Hashim Amla stole all the limelight with his dogged determined batting, it was Kallis who started it all, taking Zaheer and Ishant head on. From 6/2, Kallis clawed back to his experience and built the innings brick by brick and blossomed at the end with his usual finesse. Talk about challenges and there were two Royal Challengers up for it.

As lovers of the game, let’s forget borders for a while and applaud the great performances of these men. The same way, we applauded when Sehwag and Tendulkar were pulling things for us, the Indians.