Mulder sets highest Proteas Test score to sit among greats, eyes Lara’s 400

Wiaan Mulder surpassed some legendary names — including Don Bradman, Gary Sobers and Len Hutton — on the way to claiming a new South African highest individual Test score record in Bulawayo on Monday. 

Mulder, who went to lunch on 367 on day two of the second Test against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club, will be contemplating an attempt at Brian Lara’s all time Test record of 400, set against England in 2004.

South Africa were on a monstrous 626/5. 

The 27-year-old’s sensational performance has seen him reach the fifth-highest score of all time, with only Mahela Jayawardene, Lara and Australia’s Matthew Hayden ahead of him.

In the process Mulder also went past Hashim Amla’s South African record of 311  scored at The Oval against England in 2012.

Mulder, who has only recently taken the No 3 position in the batting order, hit a beautiful cover drive — a shot Amla produced with such elegance in his legendary career — to achieve the record. 

It has been an innings of high quality in terms of shot-making, but one in which Mulder has displayed supreme concentration, allied to great displays of fitness. He was running quick singles well into the seventh hour of his innings.    

Resuming on 264 on Monday morning, Mulder continued to play with the same composed demeanour that was such a feature of his batting on the first day. Despite a streaky outside edge through the vacant third slip for four to get his innings going, the rest of the boundaries hit on day two were all struck with the kind of style and authority that made Amla such a relentless operator. 

Mulder became the 29th batter in Test history to reach 300, flicking a full toss from Tanaka Chivanga to fine leg. He achieved the milestone off the 297th ball he’d faced, the second-fastest in terms of balls faced behind India’s superstar Virender Sehwag, who needed 278 balls when he did so against South Africa in Chennai in 2008. 

He is also the ninth captain to make a triple century, joining a list that also includes Lara, who was West Indies skipper in 2004 when he set the world record against England in Antigua. Mulder is in a league of his own, however, in becoming the first player to make 300 in his first match as captain. 

Once he’d passed Amla, he opened his shoulders, playing in the manner that made a declaration at lunch seem inevitable. The Proteas have reached their sixth-highest Test total. Mulder’s teammates and the management will surely insist he makes an attempt at Lara’s record.