Boucher says Steyn is quicker than Donald

Quickest: Donald or Steyn?
2008-12-09 11:52Email | Print

Skiddy customer Dale Steyn (Gallo Images)
Australia v SA: Rob Houwing’s Oz press-watch

Cape Town - Who’s quicker: Allan Donald or Dale Steyn?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Proteas wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who has “kept” to both, partly lifted the lid at a Perth press conference on Tuesday.

“Dale is shorter, skiddier and probably a little quicker through the air than Allan was,” Boucher revealed.

“He (Steyn) also swings the ball pretty late. But I kept to Allan towards the end of his career when he was relying on flight and guile.

“Dale runs in nice and hard all the time which is good for him as well so it’s exciting to keep to him. He’s a feisty character and if there’s a challenge on, he’s not going to back down to a challenge.

“You have either got it or you haven’t and I think he has got it.”

Donald was around 145-150 kph in his prime. Steyn's maximum pace is about 147.

When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

Donald is 42

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Proteas wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who has “kept” to both, partly lifted the lid at a Perth press conference on Tuesday.

I know Boucher is a rubbish keeper, but it's a bit harsh to use quotation marks.

“He (Steyn) also swings the ball pretty late. But I kept to Allan towards the end of his career when he was relying on flight and guile."

Red, have you been editing this article?

Don't be silly, Red never edits anything.

Valid reasons.

I remember in 2003 G Kirsten said that M Sami was quicker than Shoaib when Shoaib was clocking a good 3-4 KPH MORE than M Sami. This was probably because M Sami was more of a "skiddy" bowler!

At one stage Sami WAS as quick as Shoaib. I remember him bowling at around 95mph during an ODI series against England in 2003.

Henry wrote:At one stage Sami WAS as quick as Shoaib. I remember him bowling at around 95mph during an ODI series against England in 2003.

yeah he slowed down after being told to cut down his run up by Bob Woolmer, that was probably Bob's biggest mistake as a coach. He told the same thing to Shoaib but Shoaib didn't listen.

In that particular test series against SA both bowler were bowling in the 90s but Shoaib's peak was around 96-97 while M Sami was around 93 or 94.

It would have been GREAT to see M Zahid, M Sami and S AKhtar bowling together but unfortunately M Zahid never recovered from the broken back

and now we have the likes of Gul, Asif* and Tanvir

Henry wrote:Donald was around 145-150 kph in his prime. Steyn's maximum pace is about 147.

When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

According to an article in The Age a couple of days ago, Steyn has actually registered 156 on the speed gun and is not averse to bowling 150 on different types of pitches. He said he was hoping to get up to 160 on this tour.

Zat wrote:Don't be silly, Red never edits anything.

By exposing one to the full article I'm ensuring that judgements aren't necessarily subjective which is the effect that selective editing can sometimes have.

Boucher's comment implied that Donald may have slowed down by the time he kept to him but you'd imagine that his quickest deliveries, however rare, may have still been pretty swift. Boucher was around when Donald was still relatively young.

IMO world cricket DESPERATLY needs another M Zahid!


Make sure that he ONLY plays tests and may be world cup and CT

p.s how quick was Ngam?

Red wrote:

Henry wrote:Donald was around 145-150 kph in his prime. Steyn's maximum pace is about 147.

When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

According to an article in The Age a couple of days ago, Steyn has actually registered 156 on the speed gun and is not averse to bowling 150 on different types of pitches. He said he was hoping to get up to 160 on this tour.

Well that's a load of old bollocks. Steyn has NEVER been a consistent 150 kph bowler. Maybe in his whole career he's bowled a handful of deliveries in the 150 range.

Henry wrote:

Red wrote:

Henry wrote:Donald was around 145-150 kph in his prime. Steyn's maximum pace is about 147.

When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

According to an article in The Age a couple of days ago, Steyn has actually registered 156 on the speed gun and is not averse to bowling 150 on different types of pitches. He said he was hoping to get up to 160 on this tour.

Well that's a load of old bollocks. Steyn has NEVER been a consistent 150 kph bowler. Maybe in his whole career he's bowled a handful of deliveries in the 150 range.

trev wrote:When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

It's probably an elaborate Duncan Fletcher plot to fool the Ozzies ...the journo's all seem to be biting on the bait

Steyn is certainly quicker than Gul and even Gul has been clocked at 150-151 so Steyn being clocked at 156 ONCE in his career is hardly surprising. I also think he(Steyn) doesn't all out all the time but more than the sheer speed its the very late out swing which makes really special.

embee wrote:

Henry wrote:

Red wrote:

Henry wrote:Donald was around 145-150 kph in his prime. Steyn's maximum pace is about 147.

When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

According to an article in The Age a couple of days ago, Steyn has actually registered 156 on the speed gun and is not averse to bowling 150 on different types of pitches. He said he was hoping to get up to 160 on this tour.

Well that's a load of old bollocks. Steyn has NEVER been a consistent 150 kph bowler. Maybe in his whole career he's bowled a handful of deliveries in the 150 range.

trev wrote:When will they cotton on to the fact that Morne Morkel is the quickest of the lot?

It's probably an elaborate Duncan Fletcher plot to fool the Ozzies ...the journo's all seem to be biting on the bait

The Saffas are actually trying to temper expectatons but at least the pace hype might put posteriors on seats.

...and fleas back in the pavilion for not many

Steyn was bowling consistent low 150s in the home series against India ages ago in the first test before he broke. I haven't seen him bowl quite as quick as that since.

Haven't seen Steyn live in a test yet. Did see him in a T20 a couple of years back and he was pretty sharp off a reduced run up.

Donald was a bit nippy in his prime.

In the first half of his career AD was super quick in the second half he was surprisingly slow. Same happened to Malcolm Marshall and many others.

THICKEDGE wrote:In the first half of his career AD was super quick in the second half he was surprisingly slow. Same happened to Malcolm Marshall and many others.

Would disagree with that. Remember Donald lost a substantial part of his early test career to isolation..

Donald never looked like he enjoyed bowling.

Naeem wrote:Donald never looked like he enjoyed bowling.

He never looks to me as if he's enamoured of anything.

Naeem wrote:Donald never looked like he enjoyed bowling.

Total BS. Did you ever see his reaction when taking a wicket?