Dale Steyn of South Africa appeals for lbw with Sachin Tendulkar of India on 0 during the day 3 of the 1st test between India and South Africa from Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground on February 08, 2010 in Nagpur, India. Photo by Duif du Toit / Gallo Images

Dale Steyn is one Test away from possibly joining Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis as the world’s fastest fast bowlers to claim 200 Test wickets.

His haul of 10 against India in Nagpur took his career tally to 195 scalps from just 37 Tests. By comparison, after 37 matches, Allan Donald had 169 wickets, Shaun Pollock 160 and Makhaya Ntini 123.

The quickest bowler on the planet to reach the 200 mark was a New Zealand-born Aussie called Clarrie Grimmett, who claimed his milestone against South Africa in Johannesburg way back in 1936 – in his 36th Test match.

But Grimmett was nowhere near the quickest bowler on the planet when it came to pace, practising the art of the legbreak googly. Clearly one heck of a bowler, Grimmett played only 37 Tests in all and ended with 216 wickets.

Lillee and Younis both achieved their 200th wickets in their 38th games. Behind them are Ian Botham and Stuart MacGill (remember the Aussie spinner who played second fiddle to Shane Warne?) on 41 matches.

Then Warne, Donald and Malcolm Marshall weigh in with 42 Tests.

Stastically speaking, Steyn will surpass Botham and MacGill. He has three matches to claim five wickets, and in his career to date, he has never taken fewer than eight wickets in a three-match spell – and those happened to be his first three Tests for South Africa against England in the summer of 2004/05.

And his odds of taking five in the second Test against India in Kolkata from Sunday to Thursday? In his last 10 matches he has taken fewer than five wickets on four occasions. Statistically, that means he has a 60% chance of joining Lillee and Younis (see the full list).

By the way, of South Africa’s 200-plus quick bowlers of the post-isolation era, Steyn is the least economical. Pollock leads that with a cost of 2.39 runs an over, followed by Jacques Kallis (2.81), Donald (2.83), Ntini (3.23) and then Steyn (3.54).

But who really cares when Steyn is taking wickets?

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