Mohammad Abbas Big Record: While on one hand the fourth match of the five-match series is being played between India and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on the other hand the Boxing-Day Test is being played between Pakistan and South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. This Boxing Day Test between South Africa and Pakistan is also important from India’s point of view, because if Team India does not win the five-match series 3-1 against Australia, then it will not be able to reach the final of the World Test Championship. For this we will have to depend on the results of other teams and Pakistan can play an important role in this.
However, Pakistan was all-out for just 211 runs on the first day of this test. But by the end of the day’s play, Pakistan also showed the way to the pavilion to 3 African batsmen. Mohammad Abbas took one wicket for Pakistan and on the basis of this he also made a big record in his name.
In fact, Mohammad Abbas has taken 32 wickets in Test matches at an average of 6.43 and strike-rate of 17.1 on balls hitting the stumps. His average is the best among the 47 bowlers who have bowled at least 400 such balls since their Test debut. After that comes Jasprit Bumrah (6.82 average, 34 wickets) in the list. In fact, out of Abbas’s 91 Test wickets, 33 have been LBW. Of the 224 bowlers who have taken at least 90 wickets in this format, Mohammad Abbas has the highest percentage of dismissals LBW (36.26%). After him comes Terry Alderman (58 out of 170, 34.11%).
On the basis of brilliant bowling by Dan Patterson and Corbin Bosch, South Africa bowled out Pakistan for 211 runs on the opening day of the first Test cricket match here on Thursday. Patterson took five wickets for 61 runs while Bosch, playing his first Test match, took four wickets for 63 runs. Marco Janson also got a wicket due to which South Africa wrapped up Pakistan’s first innings in 57.3 overs.
Kamran Ghulam scored the highest 54 runs for Pakistan. After him, the second big score was of number eight batsman Amir Jamal (28). Mohammad Rizwan also contributed 27 runs. Bosch took a wicket on the first ball of his Test career. He achieved this feat by dismissing Pakistan captain Shan Masood (17). He became the fifth South African bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket, after Bert Vogler, Dane Peet, Hardu Viljoen and Tshepo Moreki.
South Africa won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first and soon shook their top order. Pakistan’s score at one time was 56 runs for four wickets. After this, Kamran and Rizwan added 81 runs for the fifth wicket, but after this partnership was broken, it did not take long for Pakistan’s innings to collapse.
South Africa is currently at the top of the World Test Championship table. If they win one match of the two-Test series against Pakistan, they will secure their place in the final of the World Test Championship to be held in London in June next year. Pakistan is at seventh position in this table.
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