CENTURION: South Africa’s ace pacer Kagiso Rabada on Tuesday, became the seventh bowler from his country to take 500 wickets in international cricket.
Kagiso Rabada derailed India’s strong batting unit on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park here with his 14th five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
He dismissed Indian captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur.
With his sensational five-fer against India, Kagiso Rabada also completed 500 wickets in international cricket.
The right-arm pacer now has 285 wickets in Tests, 157 wickets in ODIs and 58 in T20Is with a combined bowling average of 24.79.
He is only the seventh South African bowler to achieve this feat, trailing former left-arm pacer Morne Morkel, who picked 535 wickets in his decorated career.
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Legendary all-rounder Shaun Pollock leads the list with 823 wickets, followed by Dale Steyn (697), Makhaya Ntini (661), Allan Donald (602) and Jacques Kallis (572).
Moreover, Rabada also became the most successful bowler against Rohit Sharma, dismissing the right-handed opening batter the most number of times in international cricket.
Rabada has now dismissed Rohit 13 times thus far and went past New Zealand’s experienced pacer Tim Southee, who had dismissed the Indian captain 12 times.
To dismiss Sharma for the 13th time, Rabada dug in short and towards the body, luring the batter to attempt a pull short. Sharma, however, ended up getting caught at fine leg by Nandre Burger.
Since making his international debut for South Africa in 2014, Kagiso Rabada soon emerged as the pivotal part of their strong bowling attack.