'It's cool to have 400 wickets'

There isn't much of a difference between a Dale Steyn press conference and his performance on the field. He shoots those answers straight, accurate and has no holds barred. Some would say that listening to him speak yesterday, after he became only the second South Africa bowler to take 400 Test wickets, was perhaps as exciting as watching him bowl. The only difference probably was that he didn't have his headband on in the post-day press conference. And in an attempt to provide our readers with the off-field experience, The Daily Star decided to publish the transcript of Steyn's question and answer session yesterday in Mirpur.

Q: Is this the best moment of your life? How different is it?

DS: No real difference than any of the others I have taken to be honest. That's about it really. No, most definitely not. I have never been a stats person. It's nice to have the numbers but I have had a lot better moments in my cricketing career. Winning games for my country has always been the objective number one so yeah the job's not over. It's cool. It's nice to have 400… (laughs).

Q: You didn't celebrate much. Was it because of the lack of audience?

DS: I don't know. It's a mix of different emotions really. I don't really know what to say. It's pretty cool to take the wickets and get the headband off and get the hair off. That doesn't influence my bowling at all.

Q: Many think you can take 500 wickets. Do you have a target?

DS: Just want to play every game. I want to bowl again tomorrow. I want to bowl again the next time South Africa pick me. Anything can happen. I don't set targets. I would have been happy if I had taken just one wicket in my international career. It's enough to play for South Africa and take wickets for South Africa. And then I managed to get 400. I never thought that that would happen… ever in my life. So, I just want to bowl man. I have said that many times before, and I probably sound like a broken record. I just repeat myself. But I just love bowling. Just give me the ball and if I am fit and I am strong, I will bowl all day. So there are no targets. It's not like that I want to take 500 wickets or I want to play a 100 Tests. I just want to bowl.

Q: You seemed to get back your flow in the game today.

DS: I had a good break since the IPL. I feel good actually. No worries with my hammies (hamstring); touchwood; nothing wrong. I feel good right now even after bowling all day and spending time in the sun and I have got a good flow. I said before coming here that sometimes if you don't have that love or passion for the game, things kind of don't go for you and I love what I am doing right now, even if it's in 40 degrees heat and the ball is staying ankle high, it's not bouncing and there's no seam and it's very slow. I would rather be here than anywhere else right now. There was a period when I actually didn't want to have a ball in my hand. I just needed maybe two or three weeks or maybe four to get that love back again. When you have got it you just don't want to let it go. I might go wicket-less in the second innings, who knows, but I am still going to be enjoying, just love being on the field right now.

Q: Mitchell Johnson got his 300th wicket today as well. How do you rate him?

DS: Mitch? Mitch is a scary bowler. I think he is one of those guys who is never going to be a line and length bowler. His captain is never going to ask him to hit a line and length. He is going to bowl fast. He is going to scare you and make you make a mistake because of his pace and that's his strength and that's why he bowls so well and I think that's why he bowls so well against England and I think that's why they don't like him. Even when he is bowling badly, they still don't like facing him, he still gets wickets. That's his strength. He is quite a scary guy to face. I mean he is quite intimidating with his long moustache, strong eye, left-arm; that's something different.

Q: Who's better?

DS: Who's better? Vernon Philander.