St George’s Park Port Elizabeth Test records: Who has scored most runs and picked most wickets in Gqeberha Tests?

Dixit Bhargav | 07/04/2022
St George's Park Port Elizabeth Test records: Who has scored most runs and picked most wickets in Gqeberha Tests?

St George’s Port Elizabeth Test records: Gqeberha will be hosting an international match after more than two years.

The second Test match of the ongoing Bangladesh’s tour of South Africa will be played in Gqeberha from tomorrow. For those who are unaware, the South African city of Port Elizabeth has been renamed to Gqeberha.

In what will be the last match of Bangladesh’s tour, it will also put an end to what has been a successful summer season for the Proteas. Having registered a triumph by 220 runs by proving their worth in the first Test in Durban, South Africa would be confident of maintaining their unbeaten home spree against Bangladesh in Test cricket.

Set to play their first-ever Test at St George’s, Bangladesh have a lot of positives from the Kingsmead Test to feel sure of themselves in spite of a fourth innings debacle.

As far as playing at this venue is concerned, South Africa have won and lost 13 Tests each out of their 31 Gqeberha Tests.

St George’s Port Elizabeth Test records

South African batters’ domination in Gqeberha Tests can be judged from the fact that the Top 16 highest run-scorers at this venue are all players of the home team. While the Top five highest run-scorers are Jacques Kallis (617), AB de Villiers (591), Dean Elgar (571), Faf du Plessis (553) and Hashim Amla (516), below are the Top Four batters among active cricketers:

Batters Matches Runs Highest Average 100 50
Dean Elgar (SA) 8 571 121 47.58 2 3
Aiden Markram (SA) 3 235 125 47 1 1
Kusal Mendis (SL) 2 154 84* 52.66 0 2
Ollie Pope 1 135 135* 1 0

Similar to some extent to the batters, the Top Eight wicket-takers in St George’s Tests are all South African cricketers. While the Top five highest wicket-takers are Allan Donald (40), Shaun Pollock (37), Kagiso Rabada (25), Dale Steyn (21) and Makhaya Ntini (20), below are the Top Four bowlers among active cricketers:

Bowlers Matches Wickets Average SR 5
Kagiso Rabada (SA) 5 25 20.08 35 2
Keshav Maharaj (SA) 5 17 32.35 58.4 2
Nathan Lyon (AUS) 2 9 31.11 62.6 1
Dhananjaya de Silva (SL) 2 7 22 29.1 0

Highest innings totals in Port Elizabeth Tests

Only five (out of 31) Gqeberha Tests have produced a drawn result till date. A primary reason behind the same is that the venue not featuring any 600+ innings totals in its 133-year history.

Team Score Overs Opposition Year
Australia 549/7d 117×8 South Africa 1950
South Africa 525/8d 153.5 New Zealand 2013
South Africa 502 189.1 England 1965
England 499/9d 152 South Africa 2020
South Africa 470/8d 121.2 Australia 1970
Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Bangladesh Bangladesh tour of South Africa 2022 South Africa

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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