Proteas veterans Dale Steyn and Imran Tahir proved on Wednesday night that they might be oud, but they’re not yet koud.
Steyn, 35, blasted a first ODI half-century when he hit eight fours and a six en route to a career-best score of 60 that helped South Africa to 198 all out in the second match against Zimbabwe.
He then claimed 2/19 in a six-over spell, only for another seasoned pro, Tahir, to strut his stuff and bag bowling figures of 6/24 including a hattrick as they bowled out the Zimbos for 78 to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead heading into tomorrow’s final match in Paarl at 1pm.
Of his knock in Bloemfontein, Steyn says: “When I started playing cricket, I could bat a bit.
“But it probably shows that I haven’t worked hard enough on it because there is some skills there.”
The pitch they played on in Bloemfontein had some uneven bounce and Steyn hopes that Saturday’s pitch in Paarl will be a lot better.
Of the wicket, he adds: “The wicket probably wasn’t the best. I’ve been around and I’ve seen quite a lot of different pitches. [With the uneven bounce], it’s not the kind of wicket you want to play cricket on and I thought Kimberley [in the first match] was pretty poor.
“We thought it would just get better coming to Bloem and I’m hoping that Paarl is going to be the best one.
“But we’ve got to go out there, we’ve got to do the business.”