Dale Steyn’s ‘head of the snake’ analogy hasn’t been received too well in Australian circles.

The Proteas fast bowler said this week that Australian captain Steve Smith’s wicket was the ‘big one’.

‘If you can cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the body tends to fall … he is the leader and if we can cause a bit of chaos there, sometimes it does affect the rest,’ said Steyn.

Vice-captain David Warner brushed it aside on Tuesday, calling it ‘fast-bowler’ talk.

Smith, however, had stronger feelings on the matter.

‘I saw that,’ said Smith when asked if he was aware of Steyn’s comments. ‘Pretty interesting. I think we’ve got a lot of batters in our line-up capable of getting runs.

‘They can think that way of they like. Hopefully they get rid of me and think the rest is going to happen … that’ll be nice.’

One thing that is clear is the mutual respect between the two players.

‘He’s obviously a great bowler,” Smith said of Steyn.

‘He looked like he was back to his best in that New Zealand series. It looked like he was bowling with good pace and good shape.

‘He’s a world class bowler and you always want to go up against the best. I’m excited to come up against this pace attack. They’ve got some quality bowlers and I think it’s going to be a really good series.

‘I’m excited and hopefully I’ll get a lot of runs.’

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