South Africa and India are currently facing each other in the Test series at Centurion, and the game is presently on the third day of the first Test. Indian bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have made their mark, with the former making an early strike to claim the wicket of rival captain Dean Elgar.

Shami struck a blow after lunch, sending Keegan Peterson packing. Aiden Markram also faced a similar fate at the hand of the pacer, who along with Bumrah, has been troubling the South African team. Shami also sent Wiaan Mulder back to the locker room, after Rishabh Pant once again caught the ball. While Bumrah’s right ankle was twisted, putting him out of action, both Shami and he are on the cusp of reaching personal milestones. 

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Bumrah, who made his Test debut during India’s tour of South Africa in 2018, has 97 wickets from 22 matches. Thus, he needs just 3 wickets in this series to reach a 100, away from India. Similarly, Shami was just five wickets away before the Centurion Test began, from reaching a notable marker of having 200 wickets to his name, in this game format. 

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If he succeeds, he will be the fifth Indian pace bowler, to join the ranks of Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, and Javagal Srinath. Shami’s stats before the game was a scorching 195 wickets from 54 test matches. At the time of writing this, Shami has dismissed Temba Bavuma, who has been caught out by Rishabh Pant. This brings the bowler’s tally to 199 wickets, and it remains to be seen if he manages to reach the magic number today itself.

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Other Indian bowlers have caused problems for the South African batting order too. Mohammed Siraj took Rassie Van der Dussen’s wicket, while Shardul Thakur broke the 72-run partnership by taking de Kock’s stump.