Hashim Amla becomes the 70000th dismissal in Test cricket

The Potchefstroom Test match between South Africa and Bangladesh witnessed a new milestone in Test cricket. The 2nd wicket of South African innings, Hashim Amla, got out to Shafiul Islam as he was caught by Mehidy Hasan Miraz after scoring a brilliant century. Thus, Amla became the 70000th wicket to fall in the Test format.

There was competition between the South Africa-Bangladesh and the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test played at Abu Dhabi as the number of wickets in Tests was hanging on 69999 for nearly three hours. While Amla was involved in a huge stand with Dean Elgar from day one, a partnership was built between Dilruwan Perera and Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal in the other Test.

Perera’s wicket was almost the 70000th wicket to fall in Tests as the Sri Lankan all-rounder was adjudged lbw but the decision was overturned on both the occasions before Amla’s eventual departure. Perera managed to get an edge before the ball hit his pads and that helped him survive before he was given out lbw for the 3rd time in the innings and the review couldn’t save him then.

Amla was indecently also the 60000th wicket to fall in a Test match when he played in the West Indies back in 2010. Co-indecently during the last year’s Boxing Day Test match against Sri Lanka at Port Elizabeth, Amla became the 10000th dismissal in the form of lbw in Test cricket. A total of 315 Tests were played for the previous 10000 wickets to fall in Test cricket which is the fewest number of games for any 10000 Test wickets. The first 10000 wickets fell after 322 matches.

Milestone wickets to fall in Test cricket:

‘Catch’ is the most common mode of dismissal in Test cricket as nearly 60% of wickets to fall in Tests are ‘caught’. Bowled and lbw are the other modes of dismissals which have been recorded over 10000 times in the longer format.

List of dismissals in Test cricket: (Up to Hashim Amla’s wicket)

(Stats as on September 29, 2017)