By IANS
Durban : South African paceman Makhaya Ntini is on the verge of bettering his mentor Allan Donald’s record.
Ntini, who has 326 wickets from 81 Tests, needs just five more to overtake Donald’s record of 330 from 72 Tests. Ntini is hoping to go past that in the third and the final Test against the West Indies starting Thursday at the Kingsmead, Ntini.
Donald, nicknamed White Lightning, was the first bowler from South Africa to claim 200 and 300 wickets. Shaun Pollock is now the leading wicket taker for South Africa with 416 wickets from 107 matches.
Ntini is excited about the possibility of achieving his dream by taking five wickets in one innings against the Windies but the thought of bettering his mentor Donald is “strange”.
“It feels very strange to think about it because Allan helped me so much in my career and was someone I could look up to as a role model,” Ntini told the Afrikaans daily Beeld.
“That is why it will not feel altogether right to one day say that I took more test wickets than (Donald).”
Although Ntini has only taken seven wickets in the first two Tests against the Windies, the Kingsmead pitch, which is expected to favour pace bowlers, could help him get the record.