Viljoen in exclusive club

There haven’t been many Test bowlers taking a wicket with their first ball at the highest level, but the last two have been Proteas.

Hardus Viljoen’s rather fortunate capture of Alastair Cook, edged behind while following a ball down the leg side in this third Test at the Wanderers follows the more sedate effort by Dane Piedt, who dismissed Zimbabwe’s Mark Vermeulen in 2014 in Harare.

Even more rare, is that Viljoen is only the second player in Test history to take a wicket with his first ball AND hit his first ball for four. The only other was Matthew Henderson, of New Zealand, in 1930

Only 20 belong to the exclusive first-ball club. the oldest being Tom Horan, of Australia, back in 1882-83. The first South African was ‘Bert’ Vogler, in a match against England in 1906, taking the catch himself. And Vogler was to fall victim to another first-baller, Jack Crawford, in the same match.

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