Stats: Most wickets for South Africa in Test cricket

Morne Morkel saw up and downs throughout his career due to injuries and the pacers that South Africa have in their ranks. From making his debut in 2006, Morkel has only 85 Test caps to his name even after playing 11 years for the country. The 1.96 m tall bowler will be quitting International cricket at age of 33 years at the conclusion of the ongoing 4-match Test series between South Africa and Australia. Interestingly, the experienced pacer was made to sit out in the 2nd Test for a newcomer Lungi Nigidi.

However, Morkel returned to the playing XI in the 3rd Test and proved his worth by putting the home team on the top. He dismissed Usman Khawaja and later claimed the big wicket of Steven Smith to push Aussies into troubles. Morkel later added Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon to his wickets tally. With the wicket of the elder Marsh, Morkel completed 300 wickets in Test cricket. Thus, he became only the 32nd player and the 5th player for South Africa to bag 300 Test wickets.

Morkel, playing in his 85th Test match, completed 300 wickets in his career. Thus, he became the 4th slowest player among the 32 players to reach this milestone. Daniel Vettori needed 94 Tests for completing 300 wickets while the left-arm pacers Chaminda Vaas (90) and Zaheer Khan (89) took more games than Morkel. The South African is only the 3rd player after Brett Lee and Bob Wills to take 300 Test wickets without a 10-wicket match haul.

Morkel’s seven 5-wicket hauls in this format are also the fewest among the players with 300 Test wickets. Brett Lee had ten 5-fers in his 76-match Test career in which he took 310 wickets. Among the 32 players with 300+ wickets, 24 are pacers including Morne Morkel. All the five bowlers who took 300 Test wickets for South Africa are pacers with all of them featured for the African nation after their readmission to cricket in 1993.

Most wickets for South Africa in Test cricket:

Milestone wickets for Morne Morkel in Test cricket:

(Stats as on March 23, 2018)