South Africa vs Australia, 2018: 3rd Test, Day 3 – Statistical Highlights

South Africa hold the advantage in the crucial 3rd game of the 4-match Test series against Australia giving themselves a chance to take a 2-1 lead. Dean Elgar carried his bat to help the home team to finish with 311 in their first innings. No Australian batsman converted the starts they got as they were bowled out for only 255. Fifties from Aiden Markram and AB de Villiers’ pushed the home team’s 2nd innings score to 238/5 before the 3rd day’s play.

All the stats and numbers that were recorded in the Cape Town Test match so far:

3 – Number of times Dean Elgar carried the bat in Test cricket. He became the 2nd opener after Desmond Haynes to carry the bat on three different occasions in Test cricket. Elgar is also the first player to carry the bat twice in a calendar year in this format.

4.25 – The collective economy rate of Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada who bagged 4-wicket hauls in Australia’s first innings. Their economy is the lowest for a South African pair in Test cricket since 2007 and the 3rd lowest for any country’s pair with 4-fers in the last ten years.

5 – This is only the 5th time in his 113-match Test career where AB de Villiers scored multiple fifties. The last such instance for De Villiers was in the 2011 Johannesburg Test against Australia.

5 – Number of catches Steven Smith took in South Africa’s first innings. He became the 11th player and the 5th captain to take five catches as a fielder in a Test inning.

214.38 – David Warner’s batting strike-rate during his 14-ball 30 during the first innings. This is the highest S/R for an opener in a Test inning. (Min: 30 runs) He bettered his S/R of 203.7 during his 27-ball 55 against Pakistan in 2017 Sydney Test.

Warner is the only opener to score at 200+ S/R in a Test innings during 30+ innings. He is also the only player with multiple Test innings with 200+ strike-rate.

301 – Morne Morkel became the 5th South African player to bag 300 wickets in Test cricket. He is overall the 32nd player with 300 wickets in this format.

1981 – Runs AB de Villiers scored against Australia in Test cricket. These are the most number of Test runs for a South Africa player against Australia surpassing Jacques Kallis tally of 1978 runs. Only Ricky Ponting (2132) scored more runs in SA-AUS Tests than De Villiers.