Keshav Maharaj has become South Africa’s leading spinner in Test match cricket.
The left-arm bowler now has 171 wickets in Tests, one more than Hugh Tayfield, who played 49 matches for the South African cricket team from late 1949 to 1960. Maharaj, thus, broke a record that stood for 64 years.
The recently-concluded second Test in Providence against the West Indies was Keshav Maharaj’s 52nd match of his career. His 171 wickets have come at an average of 30.78 and a strike rate of 58.91. He has nine fifers, with best bowling figures of 9/129, and a 10-wicket haul.
Maharaj, who plays for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, was named the Player of the Series in the two-match West Indies vs South Africa 2024 Test series that concluded on Saturday.
He finished the series with 13 wickets, including a match haul of 8/164 in the first Test in Trinidad.
In the deciding second Test in Georgetown, Maharaj grabbed five wickets. In the first innings, he bowled a short spell and picked 2/8 and added 3/37 in the second innings for a match haul of 5/45 in 17 overs.
Maharaj’s scalps in the second innings included Gudakesh Motie, who top-scored for his side with 45 in the innings, in a close match. West Indies needed 263 to win but were dismissed for 222.
Before Maharaj dismissed Motie, the Windies were at 181/6 and had got back into the game with a 77-run partnership between Motie and Joshua Da Silva.
Not only did Maharaj end the stand, but in his next over he sent back Joshua Da Silva, unsettling the opposition and reducing them to 182/8.
Aptly, Maharaj ended the chase by picking the final wicket of Shamar Joseph to help South Africa seal the series and emerge as the Proteas’ most successful spinner in Test matches.
Nandre Burger, another Royal in the match, also played his part in the win. He picked up 3/49 in the first innings but more importantly, the 63-run 10th-wicket stand between Dane Piedt and Burger in the first innings proved to make an impact.
In the first innings, South Africa opted to bat but found themselves at 97/9 before the Piedt-Burger stand pushed South Africa up to 160. Wiaan Mulder’s four-fer, Burger’s three and Maharaj’s two wickets then restricted the Windies to 144 in their first innings.
South Africa posted 259 in their second innings while the hosts were dismissed for 222, handing the visitors a 40-run win, with the match wrapping up in three days.
