Jansen's all-round brilliance earns 'best cricketer' tag from Steyn
Synopsis
South African all-rounder Marco Jansen reacted to Dale Steyn's 'best cricketer' praise after his stellar performance (85 runs, 5 wickets) against Australia, saying he just wants to be a player the team can lean on in tough moments.
South African all-rounder Marco Jansen responded to legendary compatriot Dale Steyn's "best cricketer in the world" compliment, saying that it is nice to hear such comments and that he often thinks about how he wants to be as a player. Jansen has played a major role in helping South Africa to a dominant position at stumps after four days of the second ICC World Test Championship fixture against the Aussies in Gqeberha, with the tall all-rounder contributing a superb innings of 85 with the bat before collecting a five-wicket haul with the ball to leave the Proteas just six wickets away from a series-levelling victory at St George's Park.
It was his exploits combined with skipper Temba Bavuma's 179 and Simon Harmer's 82 which took the Proteas to 425/9 declared in the first innings and then bundled out Australia for just 99 on day four. With follow-on enforced and Australia just six wickets away from a defeat, Jansen has played a massive role in infusing some life into a Test match that faced a lot of rain for the first two days. Steyn took to social media to declare Jansen was the best cricketer in the world and one can mount a decent argument that that is the case based upon his recent exploits against the Aussies. Steyn's claim gains further support based on the fact that India veteran Ravindra Jadeja is the only player ahead of Jansen on the current ICC Men's Test All-Rounder Rankings and the 26-year-old South African star admitted he was pleased to hear the kind words made by the legendary Proteas fast bowler.
'I want to be a player the team can lean on'
"It is nice to hear those comments," Jansen said, as quoted by the ICC. "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 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," he continued.
'Test cricket is all about resilience'
While the Proteas only need six wickets on the final day to win the Test with Australia trailing by 170 runs, Jansen knows he will need to stay patient with Australia opener Travis Head still at the crease unbeaten on 87* and the likes of Steve Smith and Alex Carey yet to bat.
"Test cricket is all about resilience, coupled with consistency. It's very easy to let the game leak. For us, it's just all about trying to do the right thing for as long as possible," Jansen said. "Resilience is not always if your back is against the wall. Resilience can also be making good decisions and just sticking to a plan. Test cricket tests every single aspect of you so you have to have the attitude of: it doesn't matter what happens, I am going to come back again and again and again," he signed off.
(ANI)