Mohammed Shami on Tuesday claimed his sixth five-wicket haul in Test cricket to help India dismiss South Africa for 197 in the first innings of the first Test at SuperSport Park, Centurion. India thus took a lead of 130 runs.
Mohammed Shami, playing in his 55th Test, took 9896 deliveries to claim 200 Test wickets, Ravichandran Ashwin took 10248 balls.
Mohammed Shami on Tuesday claimed his sixth five-wicket haul in Test cricket to help India dismiss South Africa for 197 in the first innings of the first Test at SuperSport Park, Centurion. India thus took a lead of 130 runs.
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Mohammed Shami, playing his 55th Test, registered figures of 5/44 in 16 overs. In the process, the right-arm pacer reached 200 Test wickets. This is Shami's second fifer in the first innings after 5/112 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2015.
And Shami took 9896 deliveries to claim those wickets, thus breaking off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin's Indian record of fewest deliveries to the mark. The off-spinner had reached the mark in 10248 balls.
But legendary Kapil Dev is the quickest among Indian pacers to reach the 200-wicket mark in terms of matches played. The former India captain reached the landmark in his 50th match. Javagal Srinath is second, in 54 matches. Shami is third. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma reached it in 63 matches each.
Kapil took 11066 deliveries to reach his 200th Test wicket.
Shami made his Test debut in 2013 at Kolkata against West Indies.
Ashwin went wicketless in the innings from his 13 overs. All 20 wickets in the match have been claimed by the pacers. Jasprit Bumrah (2/16), Mohammed Siraj (1/45) and Shardul Thakur (2/51) were the other wicket-takers for India.
Lungi Ngidi took six wickets for 71 in India's first innings. he was supported by Kagiso Rabada (3/72) and debutant Marco Jansen (1/69).