Test # 1829 Records : Makhaya Ntini's 300th wicket in Test Cricket.

Test #1829 Pakistan in South Africa 2006-07 (2nd Test) at St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth.

A Test match which was mostly dominated by the bowlers with Makhaya Ntini reaching the 300 wicket milestone and celebrating it in a fashion that might set a precedence to future record breakers, Kamran Akmal played a gem of an innings to make amends for the poor show he put up behind the stumps. In the end his unbeaten knock of 57 ensured a series leveling victory for Pakistan. Pakistan was struggling at 92 for 5 when he came in to bat chasing a modest target of 191 with Pollock and Ntini firing on all cylinders. His innings stands next only to the counter attacking century he made against India last year when Pakistan were in shambles at 39 for 6 as one of the best innings ever played under pressure by the diminutive wicket keeper.

If Kamran gets the credit for taking Pakistan to victory, it was his captain Inzamam-ul-Haq who made it possible in the first innings with arguably a career best innings of 92* during which he added a valuable 74 for the 10th wicket with Mohammad Asif. Such was his domination and intelligence in rotating the strike that he took his score from 31 to 92 while shielding Asif from facing the bowlers. In 20 overs of batting Inzamam let Asif play just 29 deliveries. Inzamam's 61 run contribution to the partnership accounted for a whopping 82.43%.

Another highlight of this test match was return of Shoaib Akthar into the National side since his drug-ban. He along with Mohammad Asif ran through South Africa’s top order with a fiery spell and helped Pakistan skittle out South Africa for a paltry total of 124 in the first innings though he sat in the dressing room with his all too familiar hamstring injury that prevented him from bowling in the second innings.

Following are some of the statistical highlights of this test match:

When Makhaya Ntini had Mohammad Sami caught behind by Mark Boucher he took his test wickets tally to 300. He is only the 21st player in history to have done so and third South African behind Alan Donald and Shaun Pollock to have reached the 300 wicket milestone in test cricket. Following is the list of all bowlers who have taken 300 or more wickets in a test career as at the end of this 2nd test match between Pakistan and South Africa in the ongoing test series. One striking factor in the list is that only four spinners appear in it contrary to popular belief that spinners will have longer careers than the fast bowlers even though two of them find the place at the top.

Player	Country	Career	Tests	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5w	10w
Warne, S K	Australia	1992-2007	145	6784.1	1762	17995	708	25.42	8/71	37	10
Muralitharan, M*	Sri Lanka	1992-	110	6117.3	1585	14649	674	21.73	9/51	57	19
McGrath, G D	Australia	1993-2007	124	4874.4	1470	12186	563	21.64	8/24	29	3
Kumble, A *	India	1990-	113	5949.0	1434	15675	547	28.66	10/74	33	8
Walsh, C A	West Indies	1984-2001	132	5003.1	1144	12684	519	24.44	7/37	22	3
Kapil Dev	India	1978-1994	131	4623.2	1060	12867	434	29.65	9/83	23	2
Hadlee, R J	New Zealand	1973-1990	86	3460.4	809	9611	431	22.30	9/52	36	9
Pollock, S M*	South Africa	1995-	107	4030.5	1205	9648	416	23.19	7/87	16	1
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	1985-2002	104	3771.1	871	9779	414	23.62	7/119	25	5
Ambrose, C E L	West Indies	1988-2000	98	3683.5	1001	8502	405	20.99	8/45	22	3
Botham, I T	England	1977-1992	102	3549.3	788	10878	383	28.40	8/34	27	4
Marshall, M D	West Indies	1978-1991	81	2930.4	613	7876	376	20.95	7/22	22	4
Waqar Younis	Pakistan	1989-2003	87	2704.0	516	8788	373	23.56	7/76	22	5
Imran Khan	Pakistan	1971-1992	88	3106.0	727	8258	362	22.81	8/58	23	6
Lillee, D K	Australia	1971-1984	70	2834.1	652	8493	355	23.92	7/83	23	7
Donald, A A	South Africa	1992-2002	72	2586.3	661	7344	330	22.25	8/71	20	3
Willis, R G D	England	1971-1984	90	2699.1	554	8190	325	25.20	8/43	16	0
Vaas, W P U*	Sri Lanka	1994-	96	3447.4	786	9216	313	29.44	7/71	11	2
Gibbs, L R	West Indies	1958-1976	79	4205.7	1313	8989	309	29.09	8/38	18	2
Ntini, M*	South Africa	1998-	74	2614.3	574	8380	303	27.66	7/37	17	4
Trueman, F S	England	1952-1965	67	2447.4	522	6625	307	21.58	8/31	17	3

Rarely in a test match does the opening day’s play end with the team batting second clinching a first innings lead. Pakistan’s reply of 135 for 6 to South Africa’s first innings total of 124 provides 42nd such instance. As happened in 35 of those cases, the team batting first which conceded a first innings lead on the day one itself went on to lose the test match. Only thrice did the team that conceded the lead on opening day went on to register a win and four tests have ended in a draw. As many as twenty of these forty two test matches resulted in an innings defeat for the team batting first. Following is the list of all such instances.

Bat 1st	Score	Bat 2nd	Score	Venue	Series	Result	Test Seq
Aus	63	Eng	101	The Oval	1882	Won by 7 Runs	t0009
SA	84	Eng	148	Port Elizabeth	1888-89	Lost by 8 Wkts	t0031
Aus	92	Eng	100	The Oval	1890	Lost by 2 Wkts	t0034
Aus	53	Eng	286 for 8	Lord's	1896	Lost by 6 Wkts	t0050
SA	58	Eng	122 for 1	Lord's	1912	Lost by Inns and 62 Runs	t0122
SA	95	Eng	176	The Oval	1912	Lost by 10 Wkts	t0128
Eng	112	Aus	167 for 6	Nottingham	1921	Lost by 10 Wkts	t0140
Eng	187	Aus	191 for 3	Lord's	1921	Lost by 8 Wkts	t0141
SA	113	Eng	128 for 4	Cape Town	1922-23	Lost by 1 Wkts	t0149
NZ	112	Eng	147 for 4	Christchurch	1929-30	Lost by 8 Wkts	t0186
SA	126	Eng	167 for 5	Johannesburg(1st)	1930-31	Won by 28 Runs	t0200
WI	99	Aus	197 for 1	Melbourne	1930-31	Lost by Inns and 122 Runs	t0205
SA	157	Aus	168 for 3	Johannesburg(2nd)	1935-36	Match drawn	t0248
SA	157	Aus	185 for 3	Johannesburg(4th)	1935-36	Match drawn	t0250
NZ	42	Aus	149 for 3	Wellington	1945-46	Lost by Inns and 103 Runs	t0275
Eng	52	Aus	153 for 2	The Oval	1948	Lost by Inns and 149 Runs	t0303
Aus	82	WI	150	Adelaide	1951-52	Lost by 6 Wkts	t0343
Eng	133	SA	142 for 5	Lord's	1955	Won by 71 Runs	t0409
NZ	74	WI	234 for 3	Dunedin	1955-56	Lost by Inns and 71 Runs	t0421
WI	127	Eng	134 for 4	Lord's	1957	Lost by Inns and 36 Runs	t0440
Pak	100	Eng	174 for 4	Lord's	1962	Lost by 9 Wkts	t0531
Ind	75	WI	118 for 8	Delhi	1987-88	Lost by 5 Wkts	t1080
Aus	119	WI	135 for 1	Perth	1992-93	Lost by Inns and 25 Runs	t1212
SL	71	Pak	109 for 2	Kandy	1994-95	Lost by Inns and 52 Runs	t1267
WI	130	Aus	139 for 2	Adelaide	1996-97	Lost by Inns and 183 Runs	t1352
Aus	118	Eng	200 for 3	Birmingham	1997	Lost by 9 Wkts	t1368
WI	147	SL	157 for 3	St Vincent	1996-97	Match drawn	t1371
Eng	112	Aus	150 for 3	Perth	1998-99	Lost by 7 Wkts	t1431
Ind	83	NZ	119 for 3	Mohali	1999-00	Match drawn	t1462
Pak	155	Aus	171 for 4	Perth	1999-00	Lost by Inns and 20 Runs	t1472
WI	82	Aus	107 for 1	Brisbane	2000-01	Lost by Inns and 126 Runs	t1516
Pak	104	NZ	160 for 0	Hamilton	2000-01	Lost by Inns and 185 Runs	t1540
BD	134	Pak	219 for 2	Multan	2001-02	Lost by Inns and 264 Runs	t1560
BD	90	SL	246 for 1	Colombo	2001-02	Lost by Inns and 137 Runs	t1561
Pak	59	Aus	191 for 4	Sharjah(2nd)	2002-03	Lost by Inns and 20 Runs	t1617
Zim	54	SA	340 for 3	Cape Town	2004-05	Lost by Inns and 21 Runs	t1737
BD	108	Eng	188 for 1	Lord's	2005	Lost by Inns and 261 Runs	t1751
BD	104	Eng	269 for 3	Chester-le-Street	2005	Lost by Inns and 27 Runs	t1753
Zim	161	Ind	195 for 1	Harare	2005-06	Lost by 10 Wkts	t1767
NZ	119	SA	133 for 4	Johannesburg	2005-06	Lost by 4 Wkts	t1801
Pak	119	Eng	168 for 2	Manchester	2006	Lost by Inns and 120 Runs	t1811
SA	124	Pak	135 for 6	Port Elizabeth	2006-07	Lost by 5 Wkts	t1829

The top scorers in this test match from both sides were dismissed in nervous nineties. Inzamam hit an unbeaten 92 in Pakistan’s first innings whereas Jacques Kallis was dismissed for 91 in South Africa’s second. This is a rare occurance in test cricket which happened only thirteen times. Following is the list of all 13 instances in test cricket.

For	Player	Score	Vs	Player	Score	Venue	Series	Test Seq
SA	HW Taylor	93	Eng	JB Hobbs	97	Durban(4th)	1913-14	t0133
WI	RJ Christiani	99	Eng	J Hardstaff Jr	98	Bridgetown	1947-48	t0293
Pak	Shafqat Rana	95	NZ	BAG Murray	90	Lahore	1969-70	t0663
Pak	Majid Khan & Mushtaq Mohd	99	Eng	DL Amiss	99	Karachi	1972-73	t0719
Eng	DS Steele	92	Aus	RB McCosker	95*	Leeds	1975	t0762
Aus	GS Chappell	98*	Eng	DI Gower	98*	Sydney	1979-80	t0868
Ind	SM Gavaskar	90	WI	PJL Dujon	98	Ahmedabad	1983-84	t0967
Pak	Aamer Malik	98*	Eng	DJ Capel	98	Karachi	1987-88	t1086
Aus	PR Sleep	90	NZ	JG Wright	99	Melbourne	1987-88	t1087
NZ	SP Fleming	92	Ind	NS Sidhu	98	Hamilton	1993-94	t1255
Eng	RA Smith	90	WI	SL Campbell	93	Lord's	1995	t1299
BD	Habibul Bashar	94	Zim	T Taibu	92	Chittagong	2004-05	t1733
SA	JH Kallis	91	Pak	Inzamam-ul-Haq	92*	Port Elizabeth	2006-07	t1829

For the Record : This is Jacques Kallis’ 4th dismissal in nervous nineties whereas Inzamam registered a 90 plus score eight times (twice not out) in test cricket. He now stands third in the list of players who have registered most 90s in test cricket along with Alvin Kallicharan of West Indies(once not out). Steve Waugh of Australia with 10 such scores (twice unbeaten), Rahul Dravid of India (once unbeaten) and Michael Slater of Australia with 9 such scores figures at the top of the nervous nineties list.