Wiaan Mulder entered cricket folklore with his extraordinary, unbeaten 367 from just 334 balls in the second Test against Zimbabwe at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo yesterday. But he stopped short of the ultimate batting record, Brian Lara’s 400.
Or rather, he was stopped short. Coach Shukri Conrad calls the shots in the Proteas changing room and, despite captaining the team for the first time, it was not Mulder’s decision to declare at lunch time with a total of 626-5. Conrad calls the shots in the Proteas changing room.
Whatever is written here and probably elsewhere, Mulder will be remembered forever as a hero for saving the sanctity of Lara’s record rather than an unworthy journeyman who had the temerity to steal it against unworthy opposition in a ‘friendly’ Test played in a cricketing backwater. He’s almost certainly come away with an easier deal, if not necessarily the best one.
The principle that individual records should never compromise the team’s goals is admirable – but bettering the game’s records has immense power in influencing and inspiring future, younger generations of cricketers. At the rate he was scoring, Mulder would have required no more than 45 minutes to add the individual world record to the Test Championship in the Proteas trophy cabinet.
The notion that it was ‘right’ for Mulder to be cut short out of ‘respect’ for Lara who scored his runs against ‘higher profile’ England is fatuous nonsense as the editor of the game’s ultimate book of record, the Wisden Almanack, said yesterday:
“Mulder would have been well within his rights to go for Lara’s record. Matthew Hayden had no issues with hammering Zimbabwe for 380, breaking Lara’s first record back in 2003, so why should Mulder have felt squeemish?,” said Lawrence Booth.
“Zimbabwe is an ICC full member nation, and this is a Test match. Cricket’s ‘morality police’ should always be ignored in moments like this,” Booth said.
A 17-year-old Mulder arrived at the Wanderers for his first-class debut in 2016 straight from school wearing his St. Stithians blazer and later made his ODI debut for South Africa at the tender age of 19. He was a super-talented prodigy apparently destined for greatness.
Some players do rise smoothly to great expectations but most falter, at least initially. Mulder played a dozen ODIs and made his Test debut as far back as 2019 but failed to secure a place in the Proteas starting XI and did not do justice to his skill. In his case, the reason was simple. It wasn’t about talent,it was about effort. An excess of it.
“I definitely tried too hard in the early years, I was desperate to prove myself and show that I deserved to be there,” he said a few months ago having finally established himself as a fixture in the Proteas squad if not the starting XI. “I’m now much more relaxed and don’t have that fear of failure that I used to battle with. You learn to trust your ability and just go with it…”
Mulder’s promotion to number three in the batting order was based purely on pragmatism. His metronomically accurate swing bowling was important to the balance of the team and with ‘keeper Kyle Verreynne (first-class average over 50) batting at seven and Marco Jansen’s joyous, unpredictability at number eight, the XI was more ‘loaded’ than at any time since 2012 when it was basically a 13-man team with Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers batting in the top five and providing two ‘free picks’ at six and seven.
But would Mulder work? A first-class average over 30 and a highest score of 235 suggested he had the talent. He contributed an important 27 in a stand of 61 to stabilise second innings and set the platform for Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram’s match-winning partnership of 147.
But it’s fair to say that nobody foresaw anything like what happened yesterday. It was the fifth highest Test score of all time behind Lara (400 & 375), Hayden (380) and Mahela Jayawardene (374). But for a few more, irrelevant minutes, Pieter Willem Adriaan Mulder could have been top of the pile.
“Records exist to be broken, not genuflected to. When Mulder is old and grey, he may look back and wonder why he spurned a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. South African Test cricket needs all the help it can get. Imagine being World Test champions AND possessing the Test record-holder, all in the space of a few weeks,” said Booth.
‘Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ doesn’t do it justice. The vast majority of the best batters in the world never come close to such a chance. But maybe, instead of regret, Mulder may live out the rest of his days in happy contentment at the lack of vitriole about pick-pocketing one of the game’s crown jewels. As nonsensical as that notion is. Perhaps he’ll thank Conrad in many years’ time. And perhaps not.
NB - Post-WTC euphoria has resulted in a coffee drought. None, actually. Ha! A coffee is always welcome if you enjoy my posts and, please remember, a paid subscription is literally just one £4 coffee a month. Chat soon.
Hi Manners, I think its a little bit unfair to blame Shuks for Mulder not carrying on and breaking Lara's test record. Mulder himself said in the interview with Polly the next day that if he had another chance, "he would do it again". Lets applaud the growth of this test team under Shuks, and the emergence of a golden era in test allrounders.
Poor Mulder. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. Next time I think he'll be more circumspect in his answers, because how dare he express a personal opinion! I hope he just blocks out the noise and carries on building that amazing form. Same for the team. . Just let bat and ball do the talking, guys, to shut up the ass hats trying to bring you down. We also know that if he had done it, he'd be getting it in the neck because it's 'only Zimbabwe' from the same a-holes reaming him for not doing it. 🙄.