Most successful bowlers for South Africa across all 3 formats

A land which boasts characteristics of pace and bounce in its cricket pitches and has found them embedded in its sons has fortunately found names like Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and now Kagiso Rabada deliver at the international stage, bowlers who have made even the best of batsmen dance to their tunes during their respective eras.

South African pacers have been involved in some of the most famous duels in the game – like Donald vs Michael Atherton in the yesteryears and Rabada against Ben Stokes today – as Sportskeeda lists their best bowler from each of the three formats, who, incidentally, are all fast bowlers.

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Test cricket

Shaun Pollock (1995-2008)

421 wickets at 23.12, Best: 7/87

5W – 16, 10WM – 1, Economy – 2.39

With cricket in his genes – all of his grandfather, great-uncle, father, uncle and two cousins played at the competitive level – Shaun Pollock was always destined to shine at the highest stage. Though he did not threaten with the pace of an Allan Donald or a Brett Lee, his accuracy and pinpoint line and length put him in the bracket of the great Glenn McGrath.

So straight were his deliveries that batsmen always feared getting bowled the moment they missed it; and so tireless where his efforts that it was in the killer heat of Adelaide that he ended up with his career-best figures of 7/87 on the tour of Australia in 1997-98.

Pollock was as good in the opposition's backyard as he was in his own: figures of 6/39 at Nottingham, 6/78 at Faisalabad, 5/28 at Kingston and 5/33 at Wellington rank among some of his best Test performances, and in Makhaya Ntini and Jacques Kallis, he found two allies who complimented him perfectly well with the new ball as well as the old one.

ODI cricket

Shaun Pollock (1996-2008)

Shaun Pollock played in three World Cups for South Africa from 1999 to 2007

387 wickets at 24.31, Best: 6/35

5W – 2, Economy – 3.65

Even in the limited-overs format, Pollock led from the front for South Africa, cramping the opposition for room with his perfection even in the Powerplay overs which demanded the batsmen to go big from ball one. A masterful economy rate of only 3.67 despite playing as many as 303 ODIs in an era when the bat was slowly gaining dominance over the ball.

Pollock starred for South Africa in three consecutive World Cups from 1999 to 2007, having led the side to the disappointment of a first-round exit at home in the 2003 edition, after which he was sacked as captain. In his first World Cup, he returned with nine wickets at 31.44, while despite the sorrow of an early departure four years later, Pollock, the captain, bagged eight wickets at 21.50.

But towards the end of 2007, realising that he had begun slipping from where he belonged, Pollock quit international cricket once the home series against West Indies finished in early 2008.

T20 internationals

Dale Steyn (2007 – present)

Dale Steyn boasts of an economy rate of only 6.71 in T20 internationals

58 wickets at 17.40, Best: 4/9

4W – 2, Economy – 6.71

Dale Steyn brought everything which a team could ask for: pace, bounce, seam and swing. While he was skilful enough to shine across all three formats, the venomous fast bowler is so far South Africa's most successful bowler in the shortest format of the game. Not to forget, Steyn is also just three wickets away from eclipsing Shaun Pollock's haul of 421 Test wickets and becoming his country's leading wicket-taker in five-day cricket.

Over to T20 cricket, Steyn's expert pace, as well as sharp slower balls, have won him franchise contracts from multiple T20 leagues - he has a staggering economy rate of merely 6.71 and had famously defended only 7 off the last over against New Zealand in the 2014 T20 World Cup. Though Steyn last played a T20 international in 2016, he remains as effective as earlier, though the only matter of repeated injuries have plagued him from representing South Africa more often in the last two years.