Monday 06 / January / 2025
Cape Town: Left-handed batter Ryan Rickelton made history on Saturday, hitting South Africa's first-ever double-century in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC).
The 28-year-old achieved this accomplishment during the second Test against Pakistan at Cape Town's Newlands Stadium.
During his innings, Rickelton made 259 in 343 balls. His knock was laced with 29 fours and three sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 75.51, which is the highest strike rate by a South African batter in a knock of 250-plus runs, outdoing Graeme Smith's knock of 277 in 373 balls against England in 2003, which came at a strike rate of 74.26.
South Africa's previous highest score in the ICC World Test Championship was a knock of 199 by Faf Du Plessis against Sri Lanka in 2020 at Centurion.
Also, this is the first double century by a South African batter in Tests while playing as an opener for the first time ever and only the fourth instance of such an innings, with previous being: Devon Conway (200 against England at Lord's in 2021 for New Zealand), Graeme Smith (200 against Bangladesh in 2002), Sri Lanka's Brendon Kuruppu (201* against New Zealand at Colombo in 1987).
In the ongoing ICC World Test Championship cycle, Rickelton has scored 451 runs in six Tests at an average of 56.37, with a double century and a century in nine innings.
Coming to the match, South Africa, leading the series 1-0 already, won the toss and elected to bat first.
After being reduced to 72/3, a 235-run fourth-wicket stand between Rickelton and skipper Temba Bavuma (106 in 179 balls, with nine fours and two sixes), a 148-run sixth-wicket stand between Rickelton and wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne (100 in 147 balls, with nine fours and five sixes) and an 86-run stand between Rickelton and Marco Jansen (57* in 49 balls) took Proteas to a massive 566/7 at the end of second session.
