class wickets mark is a special achievement

Proteas spinner Simon Harmer achieved history in South Africa’s second Test match against Pakistan last week. There probably won’t be another South African to reach the mark.

Simon Harmer became only the fourth South African ever to reach 1,000 first-class wickets, against Pakistan last week.

Harmer delivered a full ball with guile and just enough drift from around the wicket to Pakistan’s Noman Ali. It gripped off the abrasive Rawalpindi surface and caught a faint edge of the forward prodding Ali before the red cherry was snagged behind by wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne.

Harmer is only the fourth South Africa player to claim 1,000 wickets in first-class cricket. Charlie Llewellyn (1013), Mike Procter (1417) and Allan Donald (1216) were the ones to reach the milestone before him.

England’s Wilfred Rhodes holds the record for the most-ever first-class wickets — a scarcely believable figure of 4,204.

Rhodes played 1,110 matches, spanning 32 years between 1898 and 1930. It was a career and wicket tally that was made possible during the time it was played. Rhodes played no other format of the game. Because no other format existed at the time.

Harmer, conversely, reached the 1,000 wicket tally despite the time period he’s playing in. The 36-year-old off-spinner made his first-class debut in 2009, a period in which limited-overs and T20 cricket boomed and continue to proliferate.

The global switch in focus to white-ball cricket has meant that fewer first-class matches are being played, with the calendar being filled with franchise leagues instead.

Right time

Harmer, though, has never played T20 franchise cricket. Which is largely down to his skill set which is not particularly sought after. He’s a tall finger spinner whose best attributes are his accuracy and his ability to out-think batters.

Mystery spinners and wrist spinners — who rely less on accuracy and more on deception — fair a lot better in those spaces.

For that reason, Harmer has found himself in a unique position where he is able to play first-class cricket for essentially 12 months a year. Six in England, where he has represented Essex since 2017, and he has played most of his domestic cricket for the Warriors in South Africa. He plays limited-overs cricket as well, but his biggest focus is the red-ball game.

Harmer has taken 513 off his 1,000 first-class wickets for Essex, 278 for the Warriors, 64 for the Titans, where he currently plies his trade, 59 for Eastern Province and the rest for various national representative sides.

Despite making his Test debut in 2015, it’s for Essex where Harmer really found his groove as one of the leading finger spinners with the red ball, and where he refined his craft. He left on a Kolpak deal before being allowed to represent South Africa again in 2020 following Brexit in the United Kingdom.

Experienced head

In 2019, while playing for Essex, Harmer bowled to Pakistan’s current best Test batter Babar Azam, who was playing for Somerset at the time. In South Africa’s last Test match against Pakistan — Harmer’s first Test match for two-and-a-half-years — the wily off-spinner had remembered an important detail from that match six years prior: Azam did not enjoy being bowled to from around the wicket.

“I just felt it was probably more dangerous for him and made him less comfortable when I was bowling from around the wicket,” Harmer said after South Africa’s eight-wicket win in Rawalpindi.

Harmer dismissed Azam LBW while bowling from around the wicket, and in the process took his 997th first-class wicket. Not too long after he had a maiden international five-wicket haul and his 1,000th Test wicket. Experience, accuracy and tactical astuteness brought about the dismissal.

“It’s been a monkey on my back,” Harmer explained about his maiden five-fer. “Twelve Tests in, not to get a five-fer… As a bowler, when you’re taking five-plus wickets in an innings, that’s when you’re changing games.

“Four-fers, three-fers, all the wickets help, but I think five-wicket hauls is what changes games. It’s nice to get to that milestone and even sweeter to take my thousandth wicket for South Africa, while playing for South Africa.

“I’m not really a stats man, but it’s a milestone not many have achieved so to get over the line, especially in a Proteas shirt is something that I’ll remember for a long time.”

Unfortunate timing

Harmer’s international career unfortunately coincided with South Africa’s greatest-ever red-ball finger spinner in Keshav Maharaj — who made his Test debut in 2016.

Which is why — as well as taking up a Kolpak deal — Harmer only has 12 Test matches to his name.

But with South Africa due to travel to India for two Test matches next month, as well as a tour of Sri Lanka later in the current World Test Championship cycle, viewers could expect to see the pair bowling in tandem a lot more often. Maharaj’s left-arm orthodox, spinning away from right-handed batters and Harmer’s off-break, spinning away from left-handed batters, make them a threat against any opposition.

Across Harmer’s 15 years of first-class cricket, he has loped to the crease, swung both arms wide apart before bringing them together and shooting his right above his head, releasing the ball with a rotation of his fingers — usually with Oakley sunglasses protecting his eyes — a total of 55,618 times.

It’s a massive number of deliveries and thousands more if you count those that he tossed down in training. It’s a repeatable, simple movement that he’s perfected.

Harmer’s specific, slightly antiquated skillset, which is desired in red-ball cricket but not the franchise version of the sport, has meant he has found himself in rare space where he was able to collect 1,000 first-class wickets.

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