Dale Steyn, South Africa vs Sri Lanka 2019
Dale Steyn (Photo by Christiaan Kotze / AFP)

South African speedster Dale Steyn has thanked his family, friends, cricket lovers – and the game itself – for all the messages of congratulations after becoming South Africa’s highest ever Test wicket-taker.

Meanwhile, Steyn, who missed a significant part of cricket this year due to injury, achieved the feat with the wicket of Fakhar Zaman. He sent back Zaman in the seventh over of the day eliciting an edge to Dean Elgar at slips. It reduced Pakistan to 17 for 2, and his home crowd at SuperSport Park got to their feet and applauded.

While Shaun Pollock needed 108 Tests to get to 421 wickets, Dale Steyn broke the record in his 89th match. He is just outside the top 10 for all-time wicket-takers, behind Richard Hadlee’s 431.

It has been a long wait for the speedster to get to the South Africa record. He reached 400 Test wickets in July 2015, in 80 games – making him the joint quickest to get there, along with Hadlee and only behind Muttiah Muralitharan. Since then, he has played just nine Tests since that match against Bangladesh, having to limp off on a few occasions.

Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers
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The wicket was Dale Steyn’s only success of the day, and his final figures in Pakistan’s first innings of 181 all out, read 13-1-66-1.

Soon after the achievement, fans and friends flooded the social media accounts of Dale Steyn with wishes. Following the end of day’s play, he thanked all his fans, friends, and family for the wishes.

Thank you family. Thank you friends. Thank you cricket lovers Thank you cricket Messages all received, I’ll try get back to you all in good time. Love you all,” Dale Steyn tweeted.

 

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