South Africa creates HISTORY against Zimbabwe, sets world record after 33 years with unprecedented Test feat

New Delhi: The South African team wrote history in the first match of their two-Test series against Zimbabwe at Queens Park Oval in Bulawayo where Keshav Maharaj’s team was poised to easily claim victory after almost putting up an impeccable show.

The Proteas, who won the 2025 World Test Championship (WTC) trophy, are missing a number of regulars such as captain Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Marco Jansen, and Kagiso Rabada among others in their first game after the championship victory.

At the end of day 3, Zimbabwe scored 32/1 in the second innings after the target of 537 runs set them a mammoth task to win the game.

Big feat for South Africa

Such impressive show has enabled South Africa to achieve a feat that no other team has done before; to score more than 500 runs in the fourth-innings to give Zimbabwe an aim at scoring. Since they were given the status of a Test team in 1992, Zimbabwe had played 125 Tests and batted only 35 times in the fourth innings, but nothing as mammoth as the one set before them today, of over 500 to chase. Before this they had been put in chase, on eight occasions, over 400.

If Zimbabwe have also won only 14 Tests in their history out of which only six have been victories in the fourth-innings pursuit. Their most successful run chase is 174 which came in earlier this year versus Bangladesh in Sylhet.

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