South Africa vs England 2019-20: Rassie van der Dussen becomes the first batsman to score a fifty on debut in all the three formats

What's the story?

South African middle-order batsman, Rassie van der Dussen has become the first player to hit a fifty on debut in all three formats. The 30-year-old achieved this feat after scoring a half-century in South Africa's second innings of the ongoing Boxing Day Test match against England.

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The background

After performing consistently in the domestic circuit for years, van der Dussen got a chance to don the South African jersey for the first time in October 2018. AB de Villiers' sudden retirement paved the way for him in the ODI team as the selectors also picked him for the South African 2019 World Cup squad. The Pretoria-born player had represented the rainbow nation in 18 ODIs and 9 T20Is before making his Test debut against England in the Boxing Day Test.

The heart of the matter

Rassie van der Dussen made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe last year and in that match, he played a knock of 56 runs off 44 deliveries to help his team win the match by 34 runs. The right-handed batsman made his ODI debut versus Pakistan in January 2019. Playing at the St. George's Park, he missed his maiden ODI century by just 7 runs.

He scored 93 runs off 101 deliveries before losing his wicket to Hasan Ali. Despite his incredible innings, South Africa could not win the match. Playing against England in his debut Test, van der Dussen got out for just 6 runs in the first innings.

But, he came out to bat at number 5 in the second innings and hit five fours on the way to his maiden Test half-century. Jofra Archer scalped his wicket soon, however, as his innings ended at 51.

What's next?

South Africa have set a challenging target of 376 runs for England to win the Test match. It will be intriguing to see if the home side can win the Test at SuperSport Park.