Super Steyn finally reaches immortality

Dale Steyn was standing on the expansive outfield of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, soaking in a success which, for his country, had been a generation in the making. For Steyn though, as a 25-year-old, it had arrived in just his second Test against Australia. South Africa had won both, and broken a 15-year unbeaten home series run for their bitter rivals in the process. 

He had taken 10 wickets and made a vital 76 – his highest Test score – to be the decisive figure in a match that effectively drew a line under one of the greatest teams in Test history. 

As he watched his senior teammates openly weep on the bus trip away from the ground – men who had come to Australia time and again, only to return home with nothing but another series loss to lament – he began to grasp the magnitude of the triumph. 

"To see them tick off their list of achievements was pretty special," he told cricket.com.au recently.

"I had a great game personally but … it wasn't about me; there was something bigger about it."

A decade on, it is very much about Dale Willem Steyn. After a frustrating and seemingly interminable wait, he became on Wednesday the most prolific Test wicket-taker in South Africa's history, overtaking Shaun Pollock's tally of 421 during the first Test against Pakistan in Centurion. 

Amid Steyn's 422 wickets, taken at a strike-rate (42.1) that catapults him into the 'greatest paceman ever' conversation, the highs have been frequent and highly-publicised. But the more recent steps in his record-breaking journey have been difficult ones, punctuated by dark days and defined by mental challenges. 

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A little over two years ago, Steyn was in Perth, preparing for a Test series against Australia and offering fodder for local scribes by targeting the wickets of the hosts' gun batting pair. 

"The biggest guys that are going to score runs for them are probably Dave (Warner) and Steve (Smith)," he said. "So if you can cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the body tends to fall. We've done that in the past."

It was a grab that neatly encapsulated his bullish mood, while personal history also awaited him; then, he was just five wickets away from equalling Pollock's record. Steyn's prediction proved accurate. Smith and Warner were moderate with the bat but neither made hundreds, and the Proteas won a second-straight Test series in Australia. 

But the spearhead's impact was minimal. During his 13th over in Perth, he was forced to leave the field with what was later determined to be a fractured shoulder. At 33, and with a history of issues in the joint, many suspected Steyn's wickets tally would end at 417.

It would have been a sad way for a magnificent career to end, but in a sense, it might have been perversely appropriate; since he had burst onto the Test scene by hitting the off stump of England's Michael Vaughan with a perfect leg-cutter, Steyn had played with a flat-out vigour that bordered on the kamikaze. That's not to say there wasn't control. With new ball and old, control was arguably his greatest asset. Combined with pace and swing, it made him the prototypical fast bowler. But the velocity with which he attacked the game might well have precipitated the crash. 

"It was difficult," he tells cricket.com.au, reflecting on the post-Perth period. "When I came out of the MRI (scan), and the doctor had a look at it and said, 'Well, you've got a broken bone', I thought, at worst, I'd torn something really bad and I was like, 'Three months, two months and I'll be back'.

"And he said, 'No, you're going to have surgery and you're looking at eight months before you can start to even start to think about bowling'.

"That was quite rough."

Steyn said recently that many cricket fans had little idea of the seriousness of that injury, though at the time, it didn't take long for it to dawn on him. As he flew home for surgery and watched his teammates claim history in Australia, he was forced to confront some inner demons. At his age, and with cricket writers already eulogising him, he considered the game in the wider context of his life.  

"There were periods of, I wouldn't say full-on depression, but, you play cricket your entire life, I've played for 14 years for South Africa now, it's your job," he says, attempting to explain his mental state. 

"You turn the tele on and you see the guys are busy playing and they're struggling, or they're doing really well and you want to be there.

"So there was those moments that I'd have little dips, almost like depression."

Steyn took himself away from cricket. Slowly, as he ticked off small milestones on his road to recovery, he began to discover the benefits that came with the time away from the demanding international schedule. He became tighter with his family, he travelled, and he built more meaningful relationships with those closest to him. 

"I had moments throughout that whole eight months that I was excited about certain silly things like being able to turn the lamp on next to the bed, to when I could dry myself with a towel, or I could drive properly with my arm," he remembers. 

"Bowling was the ultimate goal, but there was these little achievements that I had to tick as I went along, and it was remarkable how quickly I got there just by (focusing on) these small achievements. 

"I planned things. I went to Bali. I got away, I did other things and tried to enjoy life, because there's a lot more to life than just cricket, which is something that I learned quite nicely in those two years."

In January this year, he limped out of another Test – this time against India in Cape Town – and again the writing appeared to be on the wall. Six months later, he was back again, equalling Pollock's record in Sri Lanka before a rare wicket-less Test built the suspense further. 

"The moment anybody started to talk about Polly's record, I started to struggle," he says. "I broke down once or twice, I went to Bangladesh and it was raining, it became really difficult, and the strange thing was my entire career I never chased records; I never chased achievements or anything like that, it kind of came naturally when I just played well.

"So all I wanted to do was just perform for the team. I put in everything I could, and I wanted to perform for myself, too.

"Because selfishly that's what we all want to do as well – whether it's in finance, or your own personal life, or in cricket, we all just want to do well.

"But when you're doing well the people around you tend to succeed as well. When I was playing well, South Africa was doing well and along with that came these records.

"The moment that I almost started to be shown things like records, and being made aware of records, my game kind of took a real back step when I look at it now."

Finally, on Boxing Day, a decade on from his player-of-the-match performance in that ground-breaking win in Melbourne, Steyn eclipsed Pollock. The wicket of Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman was the second of the day, and his lone success for the innings. He finished with the rather innocuous figures of 1-66, but he had the record. Cricket South Africa kick-started a hashtag campaign on Twitter, '#422andbeyond', while Steyn had already given fair warning that this was by no means the end.

"I've got a lot of wickets in me than just one more," he said in the build-up to the Test. "I haven't saved myself to take one more wicket than 'Polly'. There is a bigger goal at the end of the day. 

"It'll be a beautiful thing to happen for me if it does. These honours are great things to achieve and I'll be highly honoured. 

"But when I do, I'll get back to the end of my mark and try and take another one. That's the plan."

Just as it always has been.