South Africa’s stand-in captain Wiaan Mulder etched his name into the history books with a marathon innings in the ongoing second Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
Resuming his innings on Day 2, the skipper went on to register the second-fastest triple hundred in Test cricket. On the previous day, he had already become just the third South African captain to score a century on his Test debut. Today, he became the first Test captain to register a 350-plus score in an overseas Test. His unbeaten 367 is now the highest individual score by a South African in Test cricket, surpassing Graeme Smith’s 362 against England at Edgbaston.
The seam-bowling all-rounder has now joined the elite list of batters with the highest individual scores in Test history, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad, England’s Wally Hammond, and Australia’s Mark Taylor and Sir Don Bradman.
After smashing an unbeaten 264 on his captaincy debut on Day 1, Mulder continued in the same vein at No. 3 on Day 2. He added another century, scoring 103 more runs to take his total to 367*.
He received some support from Dewald Brevis, who added 15 more runs to his overnight 15 off 16 balls, and Kyle Verreynne, who contributed 42 off 62. Brevis was eventually dismissed for 30 off 35 by Kundai Matigimu.
Zimbabwe’s bowlers toiled hard but struggled to claim five wickets, as Mulder’s dominant knock propelled the Proteas to a mammoth total of 626/5. Had he continued, Mulder might well have threatened Brian Lara’s long-standing record for the highest individual score in Test cricket.
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