Cricket can be a cruel mistress. Just like in life, you work incredibly hard towards achieving a goal, and seconds before your very eyes, that thing passes over, as if to say “Too bad, not today”. When South Africa had finally exorcised their World Cup knockout demons, having beaten Sri Lanka in the quarterfinals of the 2015 world cup, there was optimism all around; there was a sense of “Could it really be”? And then, just fingertips away, a Grant Elliot six over long-on brought years of planning, preparation, dreams to an excruciatingly sour end. And unfortunately, it was Dale Steyn who bowled the ball which Elliot cleared the fence off.

For Steyn, it felt like there was no tomorrow. One can sense the pain in his words when he says, “I felt that one was ours. If there was a chance, that was it. Also, the fact that I might not play in the next World Cup, so it meant a lot to me.” Steyn was confident of getting his team across the line, but Elliott just got it right when it mattered. “The planning was there. Elliott just got it right. Unfortunately, he got it right on the ball that mattered the most to us,” Steyn says.

So, how did Steyn deal with heartbreak as bad as having to give up on your dream, gut-wrenchingly helpless to do anything about it? “That wristband had been with me for almost five years. I threw it because it had come to the end of its time. It was green and white and if you turned it inside out it was a nice lime-ish kind of pastel green. I left my boots too in the change room. I said I am leaving all the bad karma behind,” Steyn says almost as if closing a book you have cherished, while about to approach an exhilarating climax, but one that ends bitterly, but one that you know you have to close and move on.

[ESPNCricinfo inputs] - https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/974679/frankly-yours--dale-steyn