South African pacer Kagiso Rabada overtook legendary Dale Steyn, becoming his side’s second-highest wicket-taker in the history of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Rabada, 30, achieved this movement up the charts during his side’s Super Eight T20 WC clash against West Indies, delivering a brilliant spell of 2/22 in four overs, which rocked the Caribbean’s batting in the first half of the innings.
Now, as compared to Steyn’s 30 wickets, Rabada has 32 wickets in 28 innings at an average of 25.46, with best figures of 3/18.
The leading wicket-taker for Proteas in T20 WC history is pacer Anrich Nortje, with 37 wickets in 20 matches at an average of 11.54 and three four-wicket hauls to his name, with best bowling figures of 4/7.
Bangladesh’s Shakib al Hasan is the top wicket-taker in the tournament’s history, with 50 scalps in 43 matches at an average of 20.12, including three four-fers and best figures of 4/9.
In this tournament so far, Rabada, who was wicketless in three previous innings, has taken four wickets at an average of 47.25 and an economy rate of 7.98.
Coming to the match, South Africa won the toss and elected to field first. Lungi Ngidi (3/30 in four overs) and Rabada (2/22 in four overs) stunned the Windies batting in the first half, sinking them to 83/7. However, a 89-run entertaining counter-attacking stand between Romario Shepherd (52* in 37 balls, with three fours and four sixes) and Jason Holder (49 in 31 balls, with three fours and three sixes) took WI to 176/8 in 20 overs, with Marco Jansen’s four-over spell of 50 runs being a big negative for the Proteas.
Winning this will strengthen SA’s case of reaching the semifinals and also keep hopes of India, who is playing Zimbabwe later today, alive. (ANI)
