Dale Steyn is South Africa's greatest modern-day pacer, but his tryst with limited

Dale Steyn stands at the top of his run up, he is about to bowl the final over in a rain-shortened 43-over-a-side match. He hasn’t had the greatest night, 1/65 off his 8 overs up to that point. But here he is, South Africa’s go-to man, with all the experience and poise to finish it for his team.

Great players dream of moments like this, and with New Zealand needing 12 to win from the next 6 balls, Dale would have been confident that this was his moment to shine.

Dan Vettori and Grant Elliott were the batsmen standing in his way. Desperate to make this their special moment too, they frantically rushed through for some singles, even got a fortunate boundary.

5 now needed from 2 balls.

Dale Steyn, again, back at the top of his mark, Elliott, eyes like saucers waiting at the striker’s end. Full and straight needed, don’t give the batsman any room to swing the arms…

Dale has been dreaming of this moment since he was a kid. He runs in, leaps towards the crease, lets it go AND BOWLS A BLOODY LENGTH DELIVERY!

Elliott can’t believe his luck; he swings hard and the ball disappears over long on for 6! New Zealand win, South Africa again crumble at the gates of greatness.

New Zealand erupt, the fans, the players, everyone is on their feet and celebrating this tremendous occasion. The Proteas’ players don’t know where to look, their fans speechless and not knowing quite just what happened.

Sure, bowlers miss their lengths, bowlers get hit for 6 – that’s cricket. But when the occasion demanded something special, and a special bowler had the ball in his hands, what Steyn did there was nothing short of disappointing.

Other words could be used here; shortly ones certainly were by fans but it kind of sums up where Steyn’s career has gone with the white ball. ‘Rested’ more times than he has been selected in the limited overs during his career, you just sense it has never been his priority, yet the expectations of him have always been at a maximum.

Since that fateful night in Auckland, he has played just 8 ODIs out of a possible 16, taking 13 wickets at an average of 30.46. Decent but again, a little ‘disappointing’ for someone of his class.