Rickelton's 259 and Paul Winslow

Another 'stat indulgence'

Ryan Rickelton is a prodigious T20 talent and has the hard-hitting talent to make plenty of money on the franchise circuit. He could have been on the bandwagon a couple of years ago. But he isn’t. The power of his passion for Test cricket, even at 28-years-old and unsure of a place in the starting XI, kept him interested. Passionately.

His innings of 259 today will become an intrinsic part of his life forever. Not because he chooses for it to become so, but because there will always be people for the rest of his life who will remind him of it, and ask questions.

South Africa’s last double century was Hashim Amla’s 201 against England, also at Newlands, although there no less than two 199s in the intervening years. Dean Elgar was run out by Aiden Markram in Potchefstroom against Bangladesh and Faf du Plessis holed out against Sri Lanka at Centurion in 2020. Neither man ever scored a double hundred.

Rickelton, too, endured a couple of close calls for the Lions falling for 191 and 194 in 2017 and 2021, both at the Wanderers and both against the KZN Doilphins. But he had reached the milestone once before, an unbeaten 202 against Free State in 2019.

Rickelton’s innings was the 30^th double century by the 16^th batsman for South Africa and the fourth fastest. Herschelle Gibbs reached the landmark from only 211 balls against Pakistan at Newlands in 2003 and Graeme Smith’s 200 came from 238 balls against Bangladesh in 2007.

Gary Kirsten’s double against Zimbabwe in 2001 took 251 balls while Rickelton’s 266 balls was one quicker than Jacques Kallis’s memorable (and only) double against India in Centurion in 2010.

Gibbs’s plundering of 228 against Waqar Younis’ Pakistan team at Newlands in 2003 (and an opening stand of 368 with Graeme Smith who scored 151) was the previous highest score by an opener at Newlands and they are the only doubles from the top of the order. Jim Burke made 189 for Australia in 1957 and Jack Hobbs 187 for England in 1910.

Rickelton’s 259 was the second highest score at Newlands after Stephen Fleming’s 263 against South Africa after Graeme Smith (infamously) invited the tourists to bat first on one of the flattest pitches in 30 years at Newlands.

Other nuggets:

It was the first time the first five wickets in a Test innings against Pakistan had all been caught behind.

Rickelton and Kyle Verreynne’s sixth wicket partnership of 148 was another Newlands record passing the 129 added by Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher against the West Indies.

Verreynne hooked and pulled and drove five sixes in his innings, just short of the SA record of seven held jointly by AB de Villiers (against NZ at Newlands in 2009) and Quinton de Kock (against the West Indies at Gros Islet in 2021).

Only once before in the last seven years (since October 2017) has a team passed 500 in South Africa – South Africa’s 621 against Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day Test of 2020. It used to happen a lot more often, eight times in the seven years before that and 13 times in the preceding seven years. A comment on South African pitches, or the quality of Test batsmen?

The brilliant and persevering Mohammad Abbas finished with 3-94 from 27.3 overs. If he had conceded six more runs it would have been the first occasion South Africa had inflicted centuries on five opposition bowlers in an innings.

Kwena Maphaka completed his ‘youngest for South Africa’ hat-trick by adding the Test cap to his T20 and ODI badges. It has been an extraordinary ascent for a young man who only completed Matrick a few months ago and has yet to turn 19.

The last man to make his SouthvAfrican Test debut with only three first-class games was Paul Winslow in 1950. A hard-hitting batsman who scored a rasping 105 in a partnership of 171 with Jonny Waite to win a Test match from a seemingly hopeless position against England at Old Trafford in 1955. Shortly afterwards, he retired from international cricket at the age of 30 having played just five Tests to concentrate on his real career. How times change.

NB - This column is 99% the work of SABC statistician, Rodney Ulyate, and Manners-on-Cricket Honorary Executive, Jonathan Knowles. Thank you, Gentlemen!