Mohammed Shami added his name to record books after registering a five-wicket haul in the second innings of South Africa. India got a massive victory against the Proteas by 203 runs in the first Test of three-match Test series at home.
The day started with Ravichandran Ashwin continuing his good showings to pick up the second wicket of South Africa. Then Mohammed Shami got into the action as he smashed the stumps of Temba Bavuma and South Africa soon started to crawl after losing three wickets in the first half-hour. But it was just the beginning as he went on to dismiss Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and Dane Peidt. He became only the second Indian bowler to dismiss four batsmen in a single Test innings by knocking over their stumps. Jasprit Bumrah was the first one to achieve this feat in West Indies last month.
He finally finished things off by picking up the final Proteas wicket. Kagiso Rabada became the final and fifth prey of Shami and South Africans were wrapped up for 191. This helped India take 1-0- lead in the ongoing Test series. While asked about the same after the match, Shami shared his strategy. He said, “It’s difficult to bowl on such a wicket because it was getting slower. So the plan was to bowl at the stumps. Jaddu and Ash bowled well. We knew variable bounce and reverse swing would help us in the second innings. So we tried to attack the stumps. It was important to get the top batters out as early as possible,” Shami said after the match.
Shami became only the fifth Indian pacer to pick up a five-wicket haul in the fourth innings of a Test match at home. He delivered an outstanding spell where he conceded just 35 runs in his 10.5 overs that included two maidens. The unique feat was first achieved by the left-arm pacer Karsan Ghavri in Mumbai against England in 1977. This was followed by former skipper Kapil Dev and Madal Lal who replicated the same feat against the same opponent at the same venue in 1981. Javagal Srinath was the last speedster to register this record against South Africa in Ahmedabad in 1996.