England’s frontline bowler James Anderson recently created a record for playing the most Tests as a bowler (150), and now he has once again reached a milestone. Anderson surpassed England’s all-time great Sir Ian Botham and India’s off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin with the most Test fifers on Day 3 of the second Test against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town. The right-armer finished with 5/40 in the first innings.
A new England record 28th Test five-fer for @jimmy9!! 🖐
What's your message to him? 🐐
Scorecard: https://t.co/LkG6DzzbQq#SAvENG pic.twitter.com/Sj2GWeb1gH
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 5, 2020
Anderson moved to the seventh spot in the list of most five-wicket hauls in the longest format of the game. Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan has the most number of fifers in Tests (67), followed by Australia’s Shane Warne (37), New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (36), India’s Anil Kumble (35), Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath (34), and Australia’s Glenn McGrath (29).
Earlier, after wrapping up South Africa for 223, England came to bat in their second innings with much more confidence. Having 269 in the first innings, the English team was already 46 runs ahead of the Proteas, and they carried on the momentum by adding 218 more runs to the lead.
Dominic Sibley showed determination and reached career-best unbeaten 85. Sibley, along with the skipper Joe Root put on 116 runs for the third wicket to make sure that England stays on the driving seat. Root, however, missed out to hold his innings for long as the right-hander got out on 61.
At stumps, Sibley remained the only unbeaten player as Anrich Nortje sent the night-watchman, Dominic Bess, back to the pavilion on the last ball.
