Almost two years later, South African pacer Dale Steyn made his ODI comeback on Wednesday (October 3) when South Africa was playing against Zimbabwe in the second ODI of three-match ODI series at Mangaung Oval (Bloemfontein). Steyn made his ODI comeback memorable as his all-round performances secured the 120-run victory as well as the series victory with the 2-0 lead.

While the hosts’ South African team was struggling on 101/7, Steyn saved the team with his brilliant batting performance. The no.9 right-handed batsman played a brilliant knock of 60 off 85 balls with 8 fours and only six that helped the team to score 198 runs (47.3 overs) before getting bundled out. It was Steyn’s maiden ODI half-century and the third half-century in international cricket. Previously Steyn’s highest ODI knock was 35 against India at Jaipur on February 21, 2010.

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In bowling, Steyn provided a brilliant start in that low-scoring game as he picked up first two wickets of Zimbabwe innings and finished with bowling figure of 6-0-19-2. It led the Zimbabwe team in a huge trouble and they were bundled out for just 78 runs (24 overs) after the Protease leg-spinner Imran Tahir (6/24) bagged six wickets, including a hat-trick. After that 120-run victory, Steyn won the Player of the Match award in his comeback ODI for his brilliant all-round efforts.

Talking about his brilliant batting performance, Steyn credited his time spent in this season with the English County team Hampshire.

According to Sportstarlive, Steyn told Sky Sports, “Any time I bat it’s quite difficult to be honest with you, and that wicket was quite tough. But the opening bowlers bowled out quite a lot of overs and got through the spin so myself and Andile (Phehlukwayo) managed to build a partnership. We tried to bat in five-over spells and somehow I managed to get myself some runs.”

“You know what it’s like in the county season, you’re always batting. You get in a slog every now and then, but I think the thing is that I’ve been playing cricket, which is nice.

“In the past I’ve come into these series after a winter and haven’t played a lot of cricket and I kind of feel my way into series. But it’s quite nice to actually just come back from playing some cricket. My last game was two weeks ago, so I feel cricket-fit, which is good.”