Pakistani Cricket Players: 08/12/11

Dale Steyn

Dale Steyn Biography
Full name Dale Steyn
Born June 27, 1983, Phalaborwa
Current age 27 years 207 days
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Major teams South Africa, Africa XI, Essex, Northerns, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Titans, Warwickshire
Dale Steyn Profile
Dale Steyn could be just the latest nuclear-tipped arrow that South Africa have drawn from their seemingly bottomless quiver of classy fast bowlers. The trouble, for opposing batsmen, is that he is rather more than that. Pure pace is one thing, pinpoint pure pace distinctly another. Pinpoint pure pace poison-tipped with aggression still another. Add the regularity with which Steyn moves the ball away from right-handers, and the way his deliveries skid at batsmen - a lack of height isn't all bad - and the danger he poses is obvious.
Steyn has grown into a bowler who has a firm grip on all of the tenets of the faith of the fast and the furious. But his is no paint-by-numbers tale of ability plus skill plus experience seamlessly stitching itself into a story of success.

He began his career armed with more pace than he knew what to do with, and little else: when he played his first Test against England in 2004, he was far from the bowler just described. Then, as he made peace with his bowling action and figured out how best to hone a body seemingly not suited to the rigours of life as fast bowler for just that fate, came the accuracy. Steyn took 16 wickets in his second series, but there remained a suspicion that he wasn't as dominant and aggressive as a fast bowler of his class should be. He was simply too nice.

All of which changed in South Africa's home series against the New Zealanders in 2007-08. A visibly fired up Steyn took ten wickets in the first Test in Johannesburg. Then, shortly after lunch on the first day of the second Test in Centurion, he earned all that nastiness he needed in the sickening instant in which Craig Cumming flapped at a short delivery. Cumming missed, and the ball crashed into his face and sent him to intensive care. Suddenly, Steyn was no longer a nice kid with a bit of zip.

The flow of wickets became a gush, and in 2008, he became the fastest South African, and the 15th fastest overall, to reach 100 Test wickets. That September, Steyn was named ICC Test Player of the Year after taking 86 wickets in 14 matches at an average of 18.10. And so on and so forth ... expect many more stupendous statistics in the years to come.

Dale Steyn

India vs South Africa Dale Steyn 5 Wickets World Cup 2011

dale steyn 4-76 v england at headingly 2008

Johan Botha

Johan Botha Biography

Full Name:-Johan Botha

Born:-2 May 1982 Johannesburg, Transvaal Province, South Africa

Age:- 28

Career Information:-

Role:-Bowler

National side:-South Africa

Batting style:-Right-handed

Bowling style:-Right-arm off break

Test debut:-2 January 2006 v Australia

ODI debut:-16 November 2005 v India

ODI shirt no.:-

Botha's case is an interesting one. He began his career as an ordinary medium pacer for the Eastern Cape Warriors - by his own admission he was quicker than 125 kmph - but it was only after Mickey Arthur, the coach of the national team, had a look at him in the nets and saw something else that Botha dropped his ambitions for speed. Spurred on by Arthur's comments that he would do well to turn to spin, Botha remodeled his action and began studying the art of the doosra (A ball that turns away from the right-handed batsman) in hopes of emulating the wiles of Harbhajan Singh. A successful tour of Sri Lanka with the South Africa A side - in which he took key wickets as well as scoring runs - saw Botha's name penciled in as a potential spinning all-rounder. A determined and fiercely competitive individual, Botha found a place in the squad to tour India for a five-match one-day series after Nicky Boje pulled out over security concerns in regard to charges of matchfixing. He played in the first match at Hyderabad and produced a spell of 31 runs from six overs with the wicket of Irfan Pathan, bowled through the gate. Both Arthur and Graeme Smith rated him highly enough to see him as a vital part of the sides world cup campaign. He made his Test debut against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 2006 during the 2005-06 tour, and claimed batsman Mike Hussey as his first Test wicket. However, he was reported for throwing the ball at the conclusion of the match. He was allowed to play several games during the 2005�06 VB Series, but in February, was suspended from bowling following an analysis by bowling expert Bruce Elliott. He hoped to return to bowling after an examination by the ICC in August 2006, but he was found still to be straightening his arm more than the acceptable 15 degrees. On November 21, 2006, Johan Botha's action was passed by the International Cricket Council and he was again eligible for selection by the South African national team. He made his comeback during the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup and returned to the South African one-day team during the tour of Pakistan in 2007-08

Johan Botha

Johan Botha
Johan Botha
Johan Botha
Johan Botha
Johan Botha

Johan Botha

Johann Botha bowling

Yusuf pathan hitting Johan Botha for three sixes in 3rd ODI against South Africa at Cape Town,2011

Morne Morkel

Morne Morkel Biography
Full name Morne Morkel
Born October 6, 1984, Vereeniging, Transvaal
Current age 26 years 106 days
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Relation Father - A Morkel, Brother - JA Morkel

Morne Morkel Profile
Morne Morkel, brother of allrounder Albie, is an out-and-out fast bowler who has the pace and height to trouble the best. Morkel made his first-class debut in 2003-04, and earned promotion to the Nashua Titans in the 2006 domestic season. A certain Allan Donald marked him out as national potential with good words for the lanky fast bowler's ability to extract bounce and bowl genuinely fast.

Morkel sat out of much of the 2005 season due to injury, but excelled in a fast bowling camp organised by the South African board under Donald's watchful eye. Critics have had little to say against him, and both his attitude and physical strength were seen as plus points. With the big talking point of the 2006-07 season being India's tour of South Africa, Morkel used the opportunity to play for Rest of South Africa against the tourists to make a statement. On the opening day of the four-day fixture at Potchefstroom, Morkel cut a swathe through the Indian top order with 4 for 29. That showing earned him a Test call-up, and he made his debut in the second Test at Durban when Dale Steyn was ruled out, showing good application in an unbeaten 32, shepherding his fellow tail-enders, and pushing South Africa on to a score that seemed scarcely probable earlier in the match. He added three quick wickets on day three to help South Africa to a fantastic win, but missed out on the final Test at Cape Town.

He had a brief stint with Kent during the 2007 season and then impressed during the ICC World Twenty20 when his pace and bounce proved too much for some top batsmen. A stress fracture early in the Pakistan tour which followed halted the rapid rise, and at the start of 2008, his spell at Yorkshire was cut short by injury, but Morkel bounced back to lead South Africa's attack, without ever being at his best, on their victorious tour of England in July and August. In October 2008 he and his brother Albie became the first brothers in 56 years to be named as South African Cricket Annual Cricketers of the Year in the same season, and Morkel was an important , if unspectacular, part of South Africa's successful tour of Australia. He paid the price for some indifferent bowling form in the return series, however, and was dropped for the third Test at Cape Town. After a relatively quiet year, during which he featured in South Africa's squad for the World Twenty20 but was overlooked for the Champions Trophy, Morkel was recalled to the one-day team for the third ODI against England in November 2009. He continued to trouble batsmen with sharp pace and steepling bounce in the Test series that followed, and came within a whisker of sealing a dramatic victory for South Africa in the third Test at Cape Town when he removed an obdurate Ian Bell in his penultimate over.

Morne Morkel