Stats: Mulder breaks into top five for highest individual Test scores

367* - Wiaan Mulder now has the fifth-highest individual score in Test cricket history in a list headed by Brian Lara's monumental 400* against England at St. John's in 2004. He became the sixth batter to register a 350-plus score in a Test innings, and the second South African to record a triple hundred, after Hashim Amla, who had scored 311* against England at The Oval in 2012.

Highest individual Test scores

1 - Mulder now has the highest individual score in an away Test, surpassing Hanif Mohammad's 337 against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1958. Wally Hammond (336* vs NZ, Auckland, 1933), Mark Taylor (334* vs PAK, Peshawar, 1998) and Sir Don Bradman (334 vs ENG, Headingley, 1930) round off the top five in this elite list.

367 is also the highest aggregate by a South African batter in a Test, bettering Graeme Smith's 362 (277 & 85) against England at Edgbaston in 2003. Other than these two, Amla (The Oval, 2012), Bruce Mitchell (120 & 189* vs ENG, The Oval, 1947) and AB de Villiers (278* & 25 vs PAK, Abu Dhabi, 2010) have aggregated 300-plus for South Africa in a Test match.

297 balls taken by Mulder to get to 300, making it the second-fastest Test triple hundred in terms of balls taken, only behind Virender Sehwag's 278-ball effort against South Africa in Chennai in 2008. Harry Brook is third on this list, having got there in 310 balls against Pakistan in Multan last year.

Overall, of the 33 triple hundreds recorded in Tests till date, only two have had a 100-plus strike rate: Mulder's 367* (SR: 109.88) and Sehwag's aforementioned 319 (SR: 104.93).

3 - Mulder became just the third batter in the history of Test cricket to aggregate 100-plus runs in two different sessions in the same innings of a Test. Mulder scored 131* in the final session on Day 1 of the ongoing Test, and added another 103* to his overnight score of 264* before lunch on Monday. The first instance featured Bradman, who had scored 105* in the first session on the first day at Headingley in 1930, and another 115 between lunch and tea, taking his tally to 309 by stumps (the only triple ton completed in a single day in Test cricket). Then, at the WACA in 2003, Matthew Hayden scored 105 and 107 in two separate sessions, en route 380.

3 - This was just the third instance in Test cricket history that a batter scored a triple hundred in the first innings of the game after his side was put into bat. The previous two instances featured Graham Gooch (333 against India at Lord's in 1990) and Hayden (380 against Zimbabwe at the WACA in 2003).

3 - Mulder became the third South Africa batter to register a 350-plus score in first-class cricket, after Stephen Cook (390 for Lions vs Warriors, East London, 2009) and Barry Richards (356 for South Australia vs Western Australia at WACA, Perth during the Sheffield Shield 1970/71).

It was also the third triple-hundred in first-class matches in Zimbabwe, after 306 by Mark Richardson (NZ A vs ZIM A, Kwekwe, 2000) and Antum Naqvi's 300 (Rhinos vs Tuskers, Harare, 2024). Kumar Sangakkara's 270 in Bulawayo in 2004 was the highest Test score in the country previously.

285 was the difference between the top two scores in South Africa's innings (Mulder's 367* and David Bedingham's 82). That's the third-biggest difference for top two scores in a Test innings ever, after 300 for West Indies against England at St. John's in 1994 (Brian Lara 375 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul 75*) and 293 featuring the same two teams at the same venue in 2004 (Lara 400* and Ridley Jacobs 107*).

53 - Mulder's boundary count of 53 (49 fours and four sixes) is the second-most in a Test innings ever, after after John Edrich, who hit 52 fours and five sixes during his 310* against New Zealand at Headingley in 1965. 220 of Mulder's runs came in boundaries - the second most in a Test innings ever - only behind 238 for Edrich in his aforementioned knock. Graeme Pollock is the only other South Africa batter with a 40-plus boundary count in a Test innings, having struck 43 fours during his 274 against Australia at Kingsmead, Durban in 1970.

Highest boundary count in a Test innings

531 runs scored by Mulder in this series so far, the fifth-most in a two-match bilateral affair, after 571 by Sanath Jayasuriya against India (Home, 1997), 563 by Wally Hammond against New Zealand (Away, 1933), 540 by Andy Flower against India (Away, 2000) and 535 by Brendon McCullum against India (Home, 2014).

5.49 - South Africa's run-rate in their first innings effort of 626/5 declared is the second-best for any 600-plus total in Test cricket history, only behind England's 6.5 (657 in 101 overs) against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2022. This is also their third highest total in an away Test, after 682/6d at Lord's in 2003 and 637/2d at The Oval in 2012 (sixth highest overall).

Highest team run-rate in a Test innings (min. 600 runs)

Earlier on Day 1, Mulder had become the