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Smart quickies to thrive - Steyn

Mohali - South African speedster Dale Steyn is convinced of the futility of sheer pace on sub-continent's docile tracks and predicted only the "street smart" fast bowlers will thrive at the World Cup.

Steyn reckoned pace bowlers would end up being the cannon fodder if they just run hard and send down ball after ball at whatever pace they can muster on pitches that offer hardly any bounce.

"You got to be street smart I suppose when you bowl in India," Steyn told reporters on Tuesday.

"You can't bowl at the same pace at the same place. Guys will work you out. In my second over (against the West Indies), I was cut and then I changed from 140km/h to 120km/h.

"You got to have better understanding, you have to be pretty smart," said the bowler who claimed three West Indian wickets in the Delhi match.

"In South Africa, you can get away sometimes because of the bounce. You may get away with full wide balls. In India, it does not bounce and finds the middle of the bat and goes flying to point or extra cover for four.

"In South Africa it might find the edge or may not find the bat, so you can get away with some bad balls."

South Africa take on the Netherlands in their next Group B assignment here on Thursday with three of their frontline players carrying niggles but Steyn, one of them, assured all were available for selection.

"Every team has some kind of injuries but every single guy will be up for selection come Thursday," said Steyn, who suffered a bruise when he rammed into skipper Graeme Smith while playing soccer during Sunday's warm-up session in Delhi.

"It wasn't a tackle. Looking at the ball... bang... I was actually competing against a heavyweight," Steyn quipped.

Team mate Imran Tahir has a respiratory tract infection while JP Duminy is recovering from a stiff lower back.

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