Steyn’s Super Saiyan Scream

One often wants to get a sense of what great players are feeling ahead of a big game like the one today between South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Are they pumped up, ready to give their best? Or are they nervous, full of doubt, setting themselves up for failure? Their thoughts manifest themselves in different ways and rub off on other players.

During the 1999 Birmingham semi-final, Australia’s morale was sagging. Then came Shane Warne’s impassioned shouts of ‘Come on!’ Like a shot of adrenaline to the heart, they famously revived Australia.

Conversely, look at what Jacques Kallis’ dismissal did to South Africa in the 2011 quarterfinal. The tournament favourites were cruising when Kallis was brilliantly caught in the deep. The wicket spooked the team and led to another one of their famed respiratory attacks.

Which is why it was refreshing to see Dale Steyn’s pressing urgency to set South Africa’s record right. He was ready. He was pumped up. If he were in the army, you’d give him his rifle and get out of his way. Let him lead the charge up the enemy's hill.

Steyn normally doesn’t take the new ball, but he did today. His opening overs to Kushal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan were hostile even by Steyn’s high standards in hostility.

Both Sri Lankans played and missed often outside the off-stump. And even when they got bat to ball, their timing was off. The extra pace Steyn generated today was proving to be a problem.  

It was then that Dilshan’s belated attempt to cut Steyn ended in the hands of the second slip, Faf du Plessis, who went low to take a fine catch. Steyn is pumped up on most days like these. Today, he let out a scream, long and primal, possibly a release of all his pent-up tensions from the match build-up.

It revealed what the wicket meant to him, and how hard he wants his team to succeed. The wicket, the animated celebration, and the pressure it put on Sri Lanka, set the stage for Imran Tahir and JP Duminy to land the knockout blow on Sri Lanka.