On October 21, a day that will forever be etched in the annals of Test cricket, Kagiso Rabada became the youngest bowler to claim 300 Test wickets in the history of the sport. The right-handed bowling spearhead achieved the milestone on the first day of the Test match between South Africa and Bangladesh taking place at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. The 29-year-old bowler chased Mushfiqur Rahim out of the crease after clean bowling him for 11 runs off 20 balls in the fifth ball of the 14th over thereby marking his 300 wickets in Test cricket
Previously the fastest to take 300 wickets in Tests was the former Pakistani bowler Waqar Younis. While the former cricketer achieved the score with a total of 12,602 balls, Rabada managed to achieve it with 11,817 balls only.
Rabada, who played his maiden Test match for the Proteas in Mohali against India, on 5 November 2015, has now become the sixth South African bowler to achieve the tally of 300 or more Test wickets. The holder of the most five-day match wickets for the Proteas is Dale Steyn.
Wicket number 300 for Kagiso RabadaThere is the only perfect bowler that did this through Test match history in terms of strike rate percentages.
Fastest to 300 Test wickets (by balls bowled)
11,817 – Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
12,602 – Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
12,605 – Dale Steyn (South Africa)
13,672 – Allan Donald (South Africa)
13,728 – Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
This former Number 1 Test bowler of the world took 439 wickets in only 93 Tests played. Next is length of career and former all rounder Shaun Pollock, who took 421 Test wickets in 108 games before retiring.
In reaching the milestone of 300 wickets during the 65th Test of his career, Rabada was also the third South African bowler to achieve this feat in terms of number of matches. Dale Steyn was the fastest to reach the 300-mark in his 61st match, while Allan Donald finished the task successfully in the 63rd match.
After Rahim was dismissed, on the very first ball of the 20th over, Rabada dispatched Litton Das that only made the supporters in the stadium of Bangladesh feel worse. The wicketkeeper batsman scored only 1 run off 13 balls before being caught by Tristan Stubbs.
These two wickets in the current match, however, have enabled Rabada to surpass the famous English cricketer Ian Botham in the list of highest international wicket-takers. At the end of his career, Ian Botham had taken 528 wickets. In contrast, Rabada has 529 wickets in his career so far.
Most wickets for South Africa in Tests
439 – Dale Steyn (93 Tests)
421 – Shaun Pollock (108 Tests)
390 – Makhaya Ntini (101 Tests)
330 – Allan Donald (72 Tests)
309 – Morne Morkel (86 Tests)
301 – Kagiso Rabada (65 Tests)*
