Indian origin player Keshav Maharaj, playing for South Africa in the second Test match of the ongoing South Africa Test series in Sri Lanka, was impressive on the first day by breaking the most outstanding record of India's great leg spinner Anil Kumble. Missed Keshav Maharaj took 9 wickets in this Test and missed 10 wickets in an innings of Anil Kumble for a single wicket. Keshav played the key role in reconstructing Sri Lanka's first innings 338 runs.

A part from Keshav, one wicket was taken by Kagiso Rabada when Keshav Maharaj had taken five wickets already. At that time nobody expected that Keshav would also take the other four wickets in Sri Lanka. Keshav, taking 10 overs, in the 41.1 overs, took 9 wickets, 129 runs. In this innings Dhananjay Zilva scored 60 runs for Sri Lanka. Apart from them, Dhanushka Gunthilka (57), Dimuth Karunaratne (53) and Akila Dhananjay (43) were the other notable scorers. Rangana Herath also contributed 25 runs. Sri Lankan Roshan Silva became the victim of Rabada by scoring 22 runs and except for Akila Dhananjay's unbeaten, all Sri Lankan players have been the victim of Keshav Maharaj.

In Test cricket, the only one to take all the 10 wickets in the same innings has happened twice. In 1956, England spinner Jim Laker scored history with Australia, taking 53 wickets in 51.2 overs against Australia, taking all ten wickets. After this, Anil Kumble of India achieved the feat of taking all 10 wickets in Pakistan in February 1999 at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi by scoring 74 runs in 26.3 overs. Only two players can do such a thing so far in Test cricket.

Though Keshav could not break the record of Anil Kumble, he certainly became the highest wicket-taker in an innings in Sri Lanka, the foreign bowler. After that, former Pakistan fast bowler Imran Khan (eight for 58, second in 1982) and Shannon Gabriel of West Indies (eight for 62, 2018) were in third position. In spinners Pakistan's Yasir Shah took seven wickets in 76 balls in Galle, which was the best performance of any foreign spinner in Sri Lanka earlier.

This performance of Keshav Maharaj could not be done much for South Africa as South Africa's first innings in the first innings of 338 runs in Sri Lanka's first innings was reduced to only 124 runs on the second day of the second day, with maximum 48 runs, captain Faf Du Plessis scored and Quinton de Kock scored 32 runs. Apart from this, three South African players were dismissed out for zero and 7 could not even touch the tenth.

It is notable that Sri Lanka won the first match by a huge margin of 278 runs, in which Sri Lanka had dismissed South Africa in the last innings with a record minimum score of 73. In this match, Sri Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne batted well and scored 158 in the first innings and 60 in the second innings. Apart from Dimuth, none of the Sri Lankan batsmen in the first innings could have even touched the 50-run mark. In the second innings, Dimuth's 60 runs were the biggest private score of the team.

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