Dale Steyn

Steyn made his first-class debut for Northerns (subsequently merged with Easterns to form the Titans) on 17 October 2003. He only played two first-class games and made little impact in his first season, but a series of strong performances in the initial part of the 2004/2005 season saw him called up to the Test squad to play England. He went back to playing for the Titans after failing to impress in his first three Tests.

Steyn made his debut for South Africa on 17 December 2004 in the first Test of England's tour. His first victim in Test cricket was Marcus Trescothick whom he bowled with a fast in-swinging delivery. However, his overall performance was underwhelming, he took eight wickets at an average of 52.00 and he was dropped after bowling poorly in England's second innings of the fourth Test in January 2005, bowling eight no-balls in nine overs which went for 47 runs. England won the match by 77 runs.

Steyn went to England in 2005 to play for Essex, appearing in seven matches between May and June. He failed to make a big impact in his initial outing in County Championship cricket, taking 14 wickets at 59.85. Following his work at Essex with world expert bowling coach Ian Pont Steyn returned to domestic cricket in South Africa, where he bowled excellently for the Titans through the 2005/2006 season which earned him a recall to the Test squad to face New Zealand.

Later that year, Steyn was picked in the squad for the African XI in the Afro-Asia Cup of 2005/06, and he made his One Day International debut on 17 August 2005. The African XI won the match, with Steyn bowling last batsman Ashish Nehra to seal victory by two runs. Steyn made his One Day International debut for South Africa on 20 January 2006 in a match against Australia at Melbourne, a match which was part of the 2005–06 VB Series. Steyn did not bowl particularly well and after another below par performance against Sri Lanka he dropped out of consideration for the South African ODI team.

Following a strong season playing domestic cricket for the Titans, Steyn was recalled to the Test side to play New Zealand in April 2006. He responded to his opportunity with his first five-wicket haul in the first Test at Centurion, ripping through the New Zealand batting lineup along with Makhaya Ntini as New Zealand crumbled to 120 all out, chasing 248 to win. He finished the three Test series with 16 wickets at 26.00 and made a fine impression throughout.

Steyn was recalled to the South African ODI squad in June 2007 and played in three matches between June and August, against Ireland, India and Zimbabwe. He had mixed success in these three matches, taking wickets but proving expensive.

He made his Twenty20 International debut on 23 November 2007 in the one-off game against New Zealand, taking the wicket of Scott Styris and only giving up 17 runs from his four overs. He also featured in the third One Day International at Cape Town, where he had partial success, taking the wickets of the New Zealand openers, Brendon McCullum and Lou Vincent, but going for 50 runs from nine overs.

Steyn signed to play in the Indian Premier League in 2008, playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He earned US$325,000 for his appearance in the tournament. For IPL 2011 he was bought by Deccan Chargers for $1.2 million. He later spent two seasons at Sunrisers Hyderabad, one season at Gujarat Lions and had a brief stint at Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2019.

In the first Test against the Windies in the 2010 series, South Africa convincingly beat them, with Steyn take his 200th wicket, Sulieman Benn, clean bowled (off stump). This was also the wicket that brought Steyn his 14th five – for, a superb achievement considering Steyn's modest record of only 38 tests.

Steyn is an aggressive out-and-out fast bowler capable of bowling at speeds in excess of 150 km/h. He is capable of generating considerable swing and is usually chosen to bowl with the new ball to maximize these attributes. He bowls at 140 -150 He has also demonstrated the ability to reverse swing the older ball in a Test match against India in Nagpur in 2010, which South Africa won by an innings and six runs. Steyn is an extremely competitive cricketer and often celebrates vigorously after taking a wicket. He has stated that he "love(s) the buzz from bowling fast" and that he "want(s) to be the quickest in the world".

On 2 January 2013, Steyn bowled Doug Bracewell out in first session of the first test of the New Zealand tour to South Africa to take his 300 Test wickets in 61 matches. He reached the landmark in 8 years and 16 days to become the second fastest South African bowler in terms of time taken after Shaun Pollock. Steyn played a cameo as himself in the 2014 romantic comedy Blended starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

Steyn took 3/78 in the first innings of the first Test of the South African tour in Bangladesh which was drawn due to stoppage by rain. Steyn took 16,634 balls to take his 400 test wickets and became the fastest bowler to complete the feat in terms of balls bowled. He took the 400th wicket when Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal was caught at slip by Hashim Amla on the first day of the second Test against Bangladesh on 30 July 2015. He completed the innings with figures of 3/30 while the second innings was washed out by heavy rain.

In the 2016 IPL auction, he was bought by Gujarat Lions for ₹ 22.3 million. In mid-April 2019, Steyn joined Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2019 IPL season replacing injured Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Recovering from surgery, he missed the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy but was named in the South Africa A squad for their tour of England a few months later. However, he returned to competitive cricket in November 2017, a year after the injury, playing for the Titans at the Ram Slam T20 Challenge. After 14 months of injury, Steyn played his first international Test match against India and picked up a wicket in just 14 balls. However, on day two of the same Test, Steyn damaged his left heel. This ruled him out of the rest of the series, with a recovery time of 4 to 6 weeks. Two days later, he was ruled out of the rest of the series.

On 14 July 2018, he equaled Shaun Pollock's record as the highest wicket-taker in South African test history. On 14 September, he was called back to the South African ODI squad after an absence of two years. On 3 October, he scored his maiden half-century in ODI cricket against Zimbabwe in a 120 run victory.

In December 2018, in the first session of the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Steyn became South Africa's leading wicket-taker in Tests, taking his 422nd wicket, surpassing Shaun Pollock who had held the record for ten years.

In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Cape Town Blitz team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament. In October 2019, Steyn signed to play in the Big Bash for the Melbourne Stars. In December 2019, he was drafted by PSL franchise Islamabad United as their first pick of the draft in the Platinum Category.

In April 2019, he was named in South Africa's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. However, on 4 June 2019, Steyn was ruled out of the tournament due to an ongoing shoulder injury, and was replaced by Beuran Hendricks. In August 2019, Steyn retired from Test cricket.

In the 2020 IPL auction, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the 2020 Indian Premier League.