Wanderers cricket stadium Test records: Who has scored most runs and picked most wickets in Johannesburg Tests?

Dixit Bhargav | 02/01/2022
Wanderers cricket stadium Test records: Who has scored most runs and picked most wickets in Johannesburg Tests?

Wanderers cricket stadium Test records: Johannesburg will host the second Test match between South Africa and India from Monday.

The second Test match of the ongoing India’s tour of South Africa will be played in Johannesburg from tomorrow. India playing a whole Test match on weekdays will be a rare occasion in modern-day cricket.

The Wanderers, which had last hosted a Test match exactly a year ago against Sri Lanka, will be hosting India after four years. Already 1-0 up in the series, India are a victory away from registering their maiden Test series victory in South Africa.

Coming on the back of a 113-run victory in Centurion, India would be confident of doing well in Johannesburg for two out of their four Test victories in South Africa have come here in the past. An even bigger morale-booster is the fact that India have never lost a Test match in Johannesburg.

South Africa, on the other hand, have won 18, lost 13 and drawn 11 out of their 42 Tests at The Wanderers till date. Having said that, the hosts will have to improve significantly in order to defeat an in-form Indian Test team.

Wanderers cricket stadium Test records

In Jacques Kallis (1,148), Hashim Amla (1,144), Graeme Smith (910), AB de Villiers (775) and Hansie Cronje (683), the Top five highest run-scorers in Johannesburg Tests are all former South Africans captains.

Former New Zealand batter John Reid (316), who had played a couple of Tests between 1961-62, is the highest run-scorer among overseas cricketers at this venue. Below is the list of Top five run-scorers in Johannesburg Tests among active players:

Batter Matches Runs Highest Average 100 50
Dean Elgar (SA) 8 523 127 43.58 1 2
Aiden Markram (SA) 4 347 157 49.57 1 1
Virat Kohli (IND) 2 310 119 77.50 1 2
Temba Bavuma 6 236 95* 29.50 0 1
Joe Root 2 231 110 77 1 2

Struggling to reach to the three-figure mark in Test cricket for quite a long time now, India batter Cheteshwar Pujara (229) is behind captain Virat Kohli among active Indian players with most runs in Johannesburg.

Much like the batters, the Top five highest wicket-takers here are also former South African bowlers namely Makhaya Ntini (53), Shaun Pollock (53), Dale Steyn (50), Allan Donald (44) and Vernon Philander (41). Below is the list of Top five wicket-takers in Centurion Tests among active players:

Bowler Matches Wickets Average SR 5
Kagiso Rabada (SA) 5 24 20.54 36.8 1
Anrich Nortje (SA) 2 15 19.4 27.4 2
Duanne Olivier (SA) 2 13 14 21.2 1
Stuart Broad (ENG) 3 13 18.07 40.2 1
Mohammed Shami IND) 2 11 20.81 38.4 1

In addition to Shami, Ishant Sharma (8), Jasprit Bumrah (7) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4) are the other active Indian bowlers with Test wickets in Johannesburg.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
India India tour of South Africa 2021-22 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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