South African cricket legend Dale Steyn has showered praise on Marco Jansen, describing the tall all-rounder as “currently the best cricketer in the world” following his monstrous performance against Australia on day four of the second Test at St George’s Park in Gqeberha. Jansen has been the biggest game-changer for South Africa in the ongoing series, making match-defining contributions with both bat and ball.
Firstly, Jansen served the side with a crucial knock of 85 runs, playing a massive part in anchoring the Proteas to 425/9d. Later, Jansen shone with the ball, tearing through Australia’s lineup with a devastating spell to bag 5-33. Impressed by Jansen’s utterly outstanding contribution, former South African fast-bowling great Dale Steyn took to social media to express his admiration.
“Marco Jansen is currently the best cricketer in the world,” Steyn wrote.
South Africa are very close to sealing a win after putting Australia under the pump in second innings. Australia on the other side are languishing at 156/4 and need to survive day five in order to force a draw.
“For me, it's nice to hear those comments. That’s a nice aspect of it,” Jansen said at the press conference after stumps on day four.
"But sometimes I am cuckoo in the head. I sit late at night, and I think of how I want to play and how I want to be as a cricketer."
"They are sort of deep questions and hard questions that I ask myself."
"But at the end of the day, I just want to be a player the team can lean on. Especially in hard or tough moments. It’s not always going to work out the way it did,” Jansen added.