Proteas enjoy stunning record-breaking Test series against Bangladesh

It was impressive, it was dominant, it was emphatic. It was something that had not been seen from the Proteas for many years as they enjoyed a record breaking two-Test series whitewash over Bangladesh over the past two weeks.

The Proteas have over the past few years become the masters of inconsistency, which they have shown this year as well.

They have played some terrible cricket in suffering an ODI series defeat against Afghanistan, losing an ODI and T20I against Ireland, while also being swept in two T20I series against the West Indies.

But they have also shown some superb cricket, with them reaching the T20 World Cup final in June, and winning two away Test series against the West Indies and now against Bangladesh.

Hopefully this Bangladesh series will spark an improved run of success for the South Africans, especially after they broke a number of records during it.

Arguably the biggest bit of history made was the Proteas becoming only the second team to ever have three debut centuries in a single innings, which they did in the first innings of the second Test.

Tony de Zorzi (177), Tristan Stubbs (106) and Wiaan Mulder (105no) brought up their landmark scores on the way to a massive first innings score of 575/6 declared.

The only other team to manage the feat was the West Indies all the way back in 1948 when Gerry Gomez, Robert Christiani and Clyde Walcott did it in a match against India in Delhi.

Kagiso Rabada

A close second was probably pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada reaching the impressive milestone of 300 Test wickets during the first Test, with him the quickest in history in terms of balls bowled, to reach the mark.

Rabada was also named player of the series after picking up nine wickets in the first Test and another five in the second for a top haul of 14 scalps.

Another record broken by the Proteas was their second Test winning margin, of an innings and 273-runs, which was their biggest in history, breaking the previous record of an innings and 254 runs that they set against the same team in Bloemfontein in 2017.

Other impressive feats included this being the Proteas first Test series win on the subcontinent in a decade, while it was also their first series sweep in Asia since 2008.

The result also lifted them up to fourth place on the World Test Championship points table, and has given them a chance of reaching the final with the top two sides to face each other at Lords in June next year for the title.

Proteas stand-in captain Aiden Markram however said: “It is still a long way away but to be in the mix for the final is what’s driving us. We are just taking it one Test match at a time.”