Dale Steyn surpasses Imran Tahir to become leading T20I wicket-taker for South Africa
The previous record was held by Imran Tahir, whose tally of 61 wickets was surpassed by Dale Steyn after taking the wicket of Jos Buttler.
South Africa put on a resilient display against a superior England side on a rain-hit Day 3 of the third Test at the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth and have reduced their trailing margin to 291 runs at the end of Saturday’s play.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock remained not out at an overnight score of 63 off 134 deliveries, while Vernon Philander is holding the other end after playing a 55-ball innings of 27 to keep the Proteas afloat at 208/6.
Despite de Kock’s brilliance with the bat, the highlight of the day’s play was the batting of nightwatchman Anrich Nortje, who had taken to the crease after the dismissal of Zubayr Hamza at the fag end of Day 2. Nortje batted for most of the third day to play 136 balls before finally edging a Ben Stokes-delivery to England captain Joe Root to bring an end to his 18-run knock.
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For England, their star player Stokes had a disappointing day to say the least. He dropped three catches off de Kock who eventually went on to harm the visitors the most with the highest score of the South African innings.
Dom Bess, who was called in after Jack Leach fell ill and failed to play a single match on the tour, took his first 5-for in Test cricket. The 22-year-old victimised Dean Elgar, South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis and Rassie Van der Dussen in addition to his Day 2 scalps of Pieter Malan and Hamza.
The next two day’s play is likely to be affected by rain and England will be hoping to get South Africa all-out in the first innings as soon as possible to enforce a follow-on and have a chance of going 2-1 up in the four-match series.
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