Cummins eighth Australian to 300 Test wickets

Australia captain Pat Cummins became the eighth from his country to reach 300 Test wickets, as his 6 for 28 — the best figures by a Test captain at Lord’s — dismantled South Africa on the second day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
It marked a historic milestone in Test cricket: for the first time ever, a bowling attack featured three players with 300 or more wickets playing together — Cummins joined Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon in this elite group. Josh Hazlewood, meanwhile, sits on 280 wickets.
“It’s great, and I’ve got some family here which is nice,” Cummins told the host broadcaster at the innings break. “They were batting pretty well so [I’m] happy we’ve got a decent lead in this first innings. It’s way more than I could have asked for. For any fast bowler, 300 is a big number — means you’ve battled a few injuries and niggles, got through it, and played well in different conditions.”
Cummins, who had dismissed Wiaan Mulder on the first evening, claimed all five wickets to fall to a bowler on the second day, with the only other dismissal being the run-out of Keshav Maharaj. He broke South Africa’s resistance in the morning session when Temba Bavuma drove to cover. After lunch, he was magnificent in a spell that read 4.1-4-4.
“When the ball got a bit softer, it didn’t feel like there was too much in it, but still felt the odd ball was nipping a little bit,” Cummins said.
His wickets included Kyle Verreynne lbw, after the pair collided mid-pitch, a leading edge from Marco Jansen, the outside edge of David Bedingham and Kagiso Rabada, brilliantly caught at deep square leg to bring up Cummins’ 300th wicket
Cummins has the fourth-best strike rate among bowlers with 300 Test wickets — behind Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, and Waqar Younis. Overall, he has taken 79 wickets at an average of 23.03 in this WTC cycle.
Australia were bowled out for 212 in their first innings but managed to restrict South Africa to 138. However, South Africa bounced back strongly, leaving Australia at 144 for eight at the end of day two in what has become an enthralling contest. (ESPNcricinfo)