MR 300
Kagiso Rabada joins the likes of Dale Steyn, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Allan Donald and Morne Morkel to take over 300 Test wickets for South Africa 🇿🇦🔥#BANvSA pic.twitter.com/3VZ9k496T1
Kagiso Rabada’s 300th wicket has become a hot topic from the beginning of the year when the 29-year-old finished the New Year’s Test against India at Newlands nine scalps away from the 300-wicket milestone.
With the right-arm quick’s impressive record as a wicket-taker, the whole world thought he would get the nine wickets during the Test trip to the Caribbean two months ago, but it just wasn’t meant to be as the bowler took eight wickets during that tour. Yesterday, Rabada had to wait a bit longer once again as he went through his first spell without a wicket.
However, in the first over of his second spell, the fast bowler broke through the defence of batter Mushfiqur Rahim and sent his stumps cartwheeling to put his name in the history books. The 29-year-old became the fastest bowler to reach the 300 wicket mark, doing so in 130 overs less than Pakistan’s Waqar Younis.
MULDER GETS HIS MAN
While Rabada struggled for line and length with the new ball in Dhaka, Wiaan Mulder was on the money from ball one. The right-arm seamer produced a ripper to dismiss an in-form Mominul Haque.
A few deliveries prior to the dismissal, Mulder had thought he had gotten his man when he trapped him LBW, only for the TV umpire to be unable to thoroughly decipher the review due to the unavailability of ball-tracking in Bangladesh on Day One. The 26-year-old had to take matters into his own hands, as he induced an edge off Haque’s bat, and wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne did the rest behind the stumps to hand Mulder his deserved wicket.
STUBBS GRABS AT IT
Catching at gully is never an easy task, but Tristan Stubbs made it look easy. Wicket-keeper batter Liton Das went fishing at a wide delivery from Rabada, got an edge, and the ball went flying into the gully region. Stubbs had to react quickly and dive to his left-hand side to complete the catch and hand Rabada his second wicket of the day.
REVIEW THE NON-REVIEW
It was disappointing to learn that a full session’s play does not have ball-tracking. When Mulder had trapped Haque in front during the morning session, the on-field umpire was not interested in the appeal, and Mulder asked stand-in captain Aiden Markram to send it upstairs for a review.
The footage showed that Mulder was onto something as it looked plumb, but since the TV umpire did not have ball-tracking available, the on-field umpire’s not-out decision upheld. This was a moment in the game that could have changed the entire outlook of the match and is just unacceptable in this day and age.