India vs South Africa: Ravindra Jadeja Beats Big Names, Becomes Quickest To 200 Test Wickets Among Left-Arm Bowlers

Ravindra Jadeja on Friday picked up his 200th Test wicket when he got rid of South African centurion Dean Elgar for 160 runs on Day 3 of the first Test in Vizag. With this, Jadeja became the quickest among left-arm bowlers to reach the landmark in just 44 matches in the longest format of the game, ahead of the likes of Rangana Herath, Wasim Akram (51 matches) and Mitchell Starc. The all-rounder broke the record previously held by Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath who had taken 47 games to get to the feat. This was Jadeja's first wicket on the day and second in the match. Elgar with his patient innings brought South Africa back in the game after they had lost three wickets for 39 runs on the previous day.

After a patient innings, Elgar tried to slog-sweep Jadeja but didn't get the enough connection. Cheteshwar Pujara came in charging from the midwicket region and took a brilliant catch diving full-length to end Elgar's gritty innings.

Jadeja's spin-partner Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers for India as he scalped three important wickets of Aiden Markram, Theunis de Bruyn and South African skipper Faf du Plessis. While he dismissed the first two batsmen cheaply for five and four respectively on Day 2, du Plessis got out after scoring 55 off 103 balls on Day 3.

After Elgar's departure, South African wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock took control of the innings in his hands and completed his century in style with a six over long-off.

Earlier, India riding on prolific 317-run stand between Rohit Sharma (176) and Mayank Agarwal (215) for the opening wicket declared their first innings at 502/7.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Ravindra Jadeja Dean Elgar Ravichandran Ashwin ACA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam India vs South Africa, 2019 Cricket India vs South Africa, 1st Test