South Africa vs Pakistan, 2018-19: 1st Test – Statistical Highlights

South Africa continued their great record at the SuperSport Park in Centurion as they thumped Pakistan by five wickets in the first of the 3-match Test series. The Saffers were reduced to 43/4 in their first innings after Babar Azam’s quick-fire 71 took Pakistan to 181. Middle and lower-order contributions helped the hosts to claim a crucial 42-run lead.

Duanne Olivier followed up his 6-wicket haul with a five-fer in the second innings as Pakistan collapsed to only 190/10 from 101/1 in the second essay. The South African were set a target of 149 which they achieved with help of an unbeaten 63 from Hashim Amla who put on a 119-run stand for the 2nd wicket with Dean Elgar (50).

Here we look at all the major stats and numbers from the first Test between South Africa and Pakistan:

Ducks for captains everywhere:

1 – This match is the first ever in Test cricket history where both the team captains bagged a duck in the two innings of a match. The 1956 Dunedin New Zealand-Windies Test match and the 2002 Sharjah Pakistan-Australia Test match witnessed three ducks each by captains; the previous most ducks bagged by captains in a Test match.

19 – Faf du Plessis’ duck is the 19th by a captain in 2018 in Test cricket. These are the most number of Test ducks for captains in a calendar year surpassing 18 from the year 2004. Five of the 19 ducks were recorded across the three Boxing Day Test matches including four in this SA-PAK game.

Unwanted records for both Sarfraz and Du Plessis:

3 – Sarfraz Ahmed became only the 3rd keeper-captain in Test history to bag a pair with all the three being players from Pakistan. Imtiaz Ahmed against England in 1962 and Rashid Latif also against SA in 1998 bagged ducks while filling the keeper-captain role for Pakistan.

3 – Faf du Plessis’ first innings duck was his 3rd golden duck as captain. He was out on the very first ball against England in 2017 The Oval Test and against Australia in this year’s Johannesburg Test. Thus, he became the first South African captain to bag three golden ducks in Test cricket.

4 – Number of ducks Faf bagged in 2018; the most by any South African captain in a calendar year. Four other captains bagged three ducks each in a calendar year while leading South Africa in Tests.

Overall, du Plessis’ four ducks are the joint 2nd most by any captain in a calendar year. Courtney Walsh bagged a record seven ducks in 1997.

A record in drought for Amla:

417 – Hashim Amla became the 3rd South African and overall the 16th player to score over 18000 runs in International cricket. He took 417 innings to reach the milestone; the 4th fewest by any player. Only Virat Kohli (382), Brian Lara (411) and Sachin Tendulkar (412) took fewer innings to reach 18000 International runs.

Rabada and Steyn set South Africa records:

1 – Kagiso Rabada became the first player from South Africa to bag 50 and more wickets in consecutive calendar years in Test cricket. Rabada finished 2017 with 57 wickets and bagged 52 wickets more in 2018.

424 – Dale Steyn now has the most number of wickets in Test cricket for South Africa. He surpassed Shaun Pollock with the first of his three wickets in this Test match.

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