Six years ago, on this day (December 28) in 2018, South Africa defeated Pakistan in the Boxing Day Test in just three days and that too by a good margin of six wickets. Besides that, this iconic game also caught the attention of the fans, for one of the all-time bowling greats of South Africa.
It was all about none other than the former legendary Proteas pacer Dale Steyn who surpassed the former Proteas great Shaun Pollock in terms of taking the highest number of wickets in Test cricket for South Africa. Steyn achieved this feat on day 1 of the game and only on the 19th ball after the start of play on the opening day.
Getting Fakhar Zaman caught in the hands of Dean Elgar, Steyn scalped his Test career’s 422nd wicket; the fiery pacer surpassed Pollock’s record of 421 Test wickets to become South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the longest format of the game. Just two months after achieving this milestone, the Phalaborwa-born played his last Test for South Africa in the Gqebrha Test against Sri Lanka, which concluded on February 23.
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Dale Steyn still holds the record of most Test wickets for SA
Speaking of Steyn’s stellar Test career for South Africa, he played 93 Tests in his illustrious career, scalping 439 wickets, the highest by a South African in Test cricket; he claimed 27 four-wicket hauls and 26 five-wicket hauls, alongside 5 ten-wicket hauls in his outstanding Test career.
This record still stands to the credit of Dale Steyn with no other active bowler even close to him. All the three bowlers following Steyn in this tally had already retired from cricket over decades ago. The 41-year-old is followed by the former legendary Proteas all-rounder Shaun Pollock (421 wickets) at number 2, former pacer Makhaya Ntini (390 wickets) and the white lightening of his era, none other than Allan Donald (330 wickets).
The only active bowler in the top five of this list is the star South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada who has scalped 320 Test wickets in 126 innings, with 14 four-wicket hauls and 16 five-wicket hauls.