India vs South Africa: Mohammed Shami is the 11th Indian bowler to reach the landmark of 200 Test wickets and the fifth fast bowler after Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
Mohammed Shami was the destroyer-in-chief as he picked up a 5-wicket haul on day 3 at Centurion to power India to a 130-run lead in the first Test match against South Africa. Shami completed his fifer by picking up the wicket of Kagiso Rabada and that also turned out to be his 200th Test wicket. Shami reached the feat in his 55th Test match, which makes him the third fastest Indian paceman to the landmark. Kapil Dev (50 Tests) and Javagal Srinath (54 Tests) are the only other Indian pacers to have reached the milestone in fewer Tests than Shami.
The medium pacer looked in good rhythm early in the South African innings as he first sent back Keegan Petersen, and then bowled a peach of a delivery to clean bowl Aiden Markram immediately after the lunch break on day 3.
With South African middle and lower middle order showing stiff resistance, Shami was brought back into the attack and he responded by sending back Wiaan Mulder and then picking up the crucial wicket of South Africa’s highest scorer Temba Bavuma.
Rabada was playing a good hand and it looked like he would take South Africa past the 200-run mark before Shami came back into the attack and got rid of the opposition paceman.
Shami’s efforts have given India a good platform as they would like to consolidate their position.
Shami is the 11th Indian bowler to reach the landmark of 200 Test wickets and the fifth fast bowler after Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
It must be noted that Shami has the best average and best strike-rate among all Indian pacers who have played 50 or more Test matches.