South Africa's Kagiso Rabada shows the ball to the crowd as he leaves after the England Innings having taken 5 wickets, on day 2 of the first Test match between England and South Africa at the Lord's cricket ground in London FILE. Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada claimed his 300th wicket in the longest format of the game during the opening sessions of the first Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur on Monday. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP
Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada claimed his 300th Test wicket for the Proteas during the opening session of the first Test against Bangladesh, in Mirpur, on Monday.
Coming into the clash with 299 Test wickets, Rabada troubled the Bangladesh batsmen in his opening spell without collecting a scalp.
However, when he returned later on in the session he probed Mushfiqur Rahim (11) with a couple deliveries before making a mess of the batsman’s stumps to prompt wild celebrations.
Rabada would also go on to collect the wicket of keeper Litton Das (one) before lunch as he moved on to 301 wickets in the format.
Kagiso Rabada has reached 300 wickets in Test cricket. He becomes the bowler with Fewest balls -11817 taken for 300 Test wickets. Most quickest in test cricket.
— Vipin Tiwari (@Vipintiwari952) October 21, 2024
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The 29-year-old moved ahead of Jacques Kallis recently into sixth position on the highest wicket-takers for South Africa. Kallis as the best allrounder to have ever played the game, took 291 wickets in his 165 Tests.
Rabada, in contrast, has played just 65 Tests including the current Bangladesh match.
Morne Morkel claimed the fifth most Test wickets for SA with 309 sticks, with Allan Donald further ahead on 330.
Makhaya Ntini is third with 390, Shaun Pollock is second with 421 and the legendary Dale Steyn has 439.
Steyn was widely considered the best fast bowler ever, and would have likely played many more Test matches if the last part of his career was not blighted by injury. Steyn played 93 Tests, with an average (runs per wicket) of 22.95 and a strike-rate (balls per wicket) of 42.38.
Rabada statistics compare favourably with that of Steyn, as the quick averages 22.04 at a strike-rate of 39.39.
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