Dale Steyn - New ball or first change?

It's certainly a rather strange sight to see the premier fast bowler, in the world, and undoubtedly one of the greatest in the history of the game bowling first change. There is however method to this apparent madness. For whatever reason, South Africa is a rather abject country in the art of death bowling, and in Dale Steyn we have at the very least have one of the more capable practitioners of the art. By bowling him first change, we can have Dale bowling at the death, and in the middle, where in concert with Imran Tahir, we possibly have the most potent combination of bowlers bowling in the middle overs. Since the rule change which limited the amount of ring fielders to four, the middle overs have taken a rather pronounced sense of importance. It is indeed quite simple, if you don't take wickets in the middle overs, you're on a hiding to nothing at the death against teams with wickets in hand. In modern cricket, taking wickets at regular intervals is deathly (pun intended) important. The modern way of thinking has it that run total isn't necessarily as important going into the final ten or fifteen overs as wickets in hand. The reasoning for this is rather simple. If you have wickets in hand, Scoring 130-150 runs in the final fifteen is within the realm of possibilities. Massively so. It stands to reason then, that if batting teams now see wickets in hand as the primary objective - if you will, the first 35 overs are now the launchpad to an abbreviated T20 innings - then it stands to reason that bowling teams have to then be willing to take risks in the first two thirds of the match to take wickets. This is the logic which has seen Steyn moved down to first change. It's not a downgrade, but rather an acceptance of the change of circumstances. There's also the small matter of the fact that if you're going to play Vernon Philander... He absolutely needs to get as many overs out of the way as possible. The Professional, as he is known, bowls an immaculate line and length, and is certainly good enough to bowl in limited overs cricket. What he isn't however is a particularly good death bowler. In fact he isn't a particularly average one if we're honest, and as such needs to have bowled his quota of overs by the time teams have decided to give it a bash. By bowling Steyn first change and bowling Vernon with the new ball, we have a convenient marriage.