In numbers: Keshav Maharaj's nine-wicket special
The 28-year-old left-arm spinner picked up nine wickets for 129 runs in his 41.1 overs against Sri Lanka in Colombo, but the home side still managed to post a daunting 338 on a pitch increasingly assisting the spinners.
Despite that, Maharaj’s 9/129 will go down as among the best figures by a South African bowler, and one of the best in Test history.
WICKET. @keshavmaharaj16 gets the last wicket. Take a bow, you beauty! He ends with 41.1-10-129-9, the 2nd best Test bowling figures for South Africa. Herath edges the ball to Elgar and goes for 35. Sri Lanka all out for 338. #SLvSA pic.twitter.com/vzp834rrEs
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) July 21, 2018
Here are the records he left in his wake:
0 – No South African bowler has returned better figures since readmission. Maharaj’s 9/129 is also the best figures by a visiting bowler in Sri Lanka, and the best for South Africa against Sri Lanka in Tests.
1 – Only Hugh Tayfield has returned better figures for South Africa – the off-spinner picked up 9/113 against England in Johannesburg in 1957. When he dismissed Rangana Herath on the second morning, Maharaj surpassed Goofy Lawrence’s 8/53 against New Zealand in 1961.
9 – The most wickets taken by a bowler in an innings against Sri Lanka. Imran Khan’s 8/58 in Lahore in 1982, and Shannon Gabriel’s 8/62 in Gros Islet in June this year are the next best figures.
13 – Maharaj’s figures are the 13th best by a spin bowler in Test history. Herath, incidentally, is just above him, having conceded two runs fewer in 2014 when he returned 9/127 against Pakistan at the same venue in Colombo.
19 – Maharaj’s 9/129 has pushed him into the top 20 of the best bowling figures in an innings. His is the 19th-best return. The ten-fors by England’s Jim Laker (v Australia in 1956) and India’s Anil Kumble (v Pakistan in 1999) are at the top of the list.