Story in Numbers: Morne Morkel, the underrated great

The events that panned out in the past one week, and especially the last couple of days, would have mentally and emotionally drained the minds of lots of cricket lovers. But when South Africa take on Australia in the fourth and final Test of what has been an eventful series so far, one man will be making his final stride out to the middle.

306 wickets from 85 Tests, 188 wickets from 117 ODIs and 47 wickets from 44 T20Is. For someone who has played the bulk of his career away from the limelight and under the shadow of Dale Steyn first, Vernon Philander for a brief while later and currently Kagiso Rabada, the numbers do complete justice. Only 25 bowlers have taken more scalps in international cricket across formats than Morne Morkel's 541. And the Johannesburg Test will be his last of his 12-year sojourn in the South African jersey.

Morkel made his debut in the second Test against India in Durban in 2006-07 after the hosts faced an unexpected defeat in the first Test at the Wanderers. Shaun Pollock left the scene in early 2008 and Makhaya Ntini departed a year later and since then, Morkel forged a strong partnership with Steyn. Philander joined in soon and thus they forged one of the best triumvirate Test cricket ever witnessed. After 85 Tests, he stands as the fifth highest wicket-taker for South Africa.

Most wickets for South Africa in Test cricket

Though Morkel started his career in late 2006, his first big break in red-ball cricket came when England visited the South African shores in 2008-09. He picked 19 wickets in the series, more than any other pacer from either side, which included the likes of Steyn, James Anderson and Stuart Broad. He picked 14 scalps during the visit to the Caribbean mid-2010 and rounded off the year with another 15 in the tightly-contested home series against India - including a 5/20 in the opening Test in Centurion.

The pace triumvirate

In the first home summer following the 2011 World Cup, Philander joined the pace bandwagon and the home series against Australia in late 2011 marked the formation of one of the best pace troika. The trio of Steyn, Morkel and Philander featured together in 31 Tests between that Australia series and the Cape Town Test against India early this year, taking 368 wickets among them at a combined average of 23.50.

Among the ten pace-bowling triumvirates, where each bowler has taken at least 75 wickets, the combined strike rate of Steyn, Morkel and Philander dwarfs the rest. The other trios in this list include Marshall - Holding - Garner, Walsh - Ambrose - Bishop and Donald - Pollock - Kallis among others.

Morkel was often the first-change bowler in this attack with Steyn and Philander preferred over for the new ball. His numbers in these 31 matches read 94 wickets at 29.60 with a strike rate of 59.88. A more telling statistic of Morkel's role would be his economy rate of 2.97 which meant he never let the pressure off the batsman by conceding easy runs after the initial burst by the new-ball pair.

Best pace bowling trios in Test cricket

*Qualification: Minimum 75 wickets each by all three

How Morkel got his wickets

Elaborating the point further, Morkel was the first-change bowler in 32 out of the 39 innings the trio appeared together. Morkel himself has confessed over in an interview to ESPNCricinfo that he doesn't swing the ball much and the back of length comes more natural to him. He would push the batsman back by hitting the back of length consistently at over 140 kph and the swing bowlers at the other pitch it further up and move it to reap the rewards.

"Dale [Steyn] then got the ball a little further up and swung the ball. That made us a lethal combination with the different styles we brought to the middle."

It should be no surprise that his style of bowling would often pave way for wickets via catches behind the wicket rather than by hitting the poles. Only 73 of Morkel's 306 wickets have come as bowled and LBWs which accounts to a mere 23.86% - roughly one out of every four. Among bowlers with at least 150 wickets only Jacques Kallis has a lower percentage of such dismissals - 22.95%. For the same cut-off in ODIs, Morkel's 19.15% of wickets via bowled and LBW is the fewest.

Fewest percentage of wickets via bowled/LBW in Test

Fewest percentage of wickets via bowled/LBW in ODIs

Morkel was one of the few bowlers who found success against the left-hand batsmen. The three players who he got to see the back of the most in his career - Alastair Cook (12 times), Andrew Strauss (eight times) and Michael Hussey (eight times) - are all southpaws. Of all the right-arm seamers with 150 or more wickets, Morkel has accounted for a staggering 39.22% of left-handed scalps.

Right-arm seamers with highest % of left-handers as victims (Min 150 wickets)

Being part of strong bowling line-ups meant Morkel often had to share the spoils with the rest of the pack. His match figures of 9 for 110 in his penultimate Test was his best in Test cricket and his tally of 306 wickets is third most (could move ahead by one place after his last Test) by a bowler without ever taking a ten-wicket haul in his career. The two players ahead of him in this list are Bob Willis (325 wickets with a best of 9/92) and Brett Lee (310 wickets with a best of 9/171).

He went through a 35-Test run in five years between November 2012 and December 2017 without taking a five-fer. Despite this, his numbers made an impressionable reading - 115 wickets at 26.83 and wicket every 56 deliveries. The phase was an apt microcosm of his entire career - never the man in spotlight but an invaluable contributor in the larger scheme of things nevertheless. Morkel just won three Man of the Match awards in his entire Test career (including the one in the last Test). In comparison, Steyn had nine, Philander seven and Rabada five (in just 29 Tests!).

One-day cricket

Morkel made his ODI debut for Africa XI in the last of the two instalments of the now defunct Afro-Asia Cup, in June 2007. South Africa's workload management of their pacers meant in career that spanned 11 years Morkel played only 117 ODIs (Steyn who made his ODI debut two years before Morkel played one fewer). Morkel ended with 188 scalps at 25.32 at an exceptional strike rate of 30.6 and a parsimonious economy rate of 4.95. Only four bowlers had more wickets in their career after 117 ODIs than Morkel's 188 - Saqlain Mushtaq (215), Brett Lee (211), Allan Donald (201) and Waqar Younis (198). Also, his strike rate of 30.6 is lower than only three other pacers in ODI cricket (minimum 150 wickets) - Brett Lee (28.1), Waqar Younis (29.4) and Shoaib Akhtar (29.7).

The best phase in ODI cricket for Morkel came between 2010 and 2015 where he was the third-highest wicket taker in the world, after Lasith Malinga (188) and Saeed Ajmal (157). Again, the strike rate was what that stood out for Morkel during his prime - 27.89 in the above period, which was behind only Mitchell Starc's 24.29 and Mohammed Shami's 26.95 (Minimum 75 wickets).

Most wickets in ODIs between 2010 and 2015

The one thing that was very un-South Africa like in his career was his performance in the World Cups. He played in two World Cups - 2011 and 2015 - and ended the leading wicket taker in 2015. His 17 scalps in the tournament was the joint most by a South Africa bowler in a single edition of the World Cup along side Lance Klusener (in 1999). Among the bowlers with at least 25 scalps in World Cup matches, Morkel's average of 19.46 is the seventh best and his strike rate of 25.04 is the fifth best, only bettered by Imran Tahir on both counts among fellow countrymen.

Best strike rate in World Cup matches (Min 25 wickets)

Morkel will stride out one last time for South Africa at the Wanderers on Friday (March 31) with the team at the cusp of creating history - a series victory over Australia for the first time in a home series in 48 years. For someone who always lived under the shadows of more illustrious teammates, Morkel could not have chosen a better series to leave a final imprint of his legacy.