CRICKET NEWS - Morne Morkel may not have picked up a wicket on his final day of Test cricket, but the big man was still beaming as he finished his Proteas career up there with the very best fast bowlers South Africa have produced.
The 33-year-old is literally retiring while at the top of his game, having moved up to sixth place in the International Cricket Council rankings with a career-best 800 rating points.
He finishes fifth on the all-time South African Test wicket-takers list, his average and strike-rate closely mirroring that of Makhaya Ntini.
Of course, ever the team man, Morkel was smiling because his side had just recorded their biggest win ever, thrashing their Australian arch-rivals by 492 runs.
“I’m very happy, I had to take quite a few painkillers and one or two injections for the oblique muscle strain, but I just wanted to be on the field whatever happened and I was happy to be able to do that. Newlands was so special and here at the Wanderers has been amazing too, I will miss it a lot, the banter and what goes on in the changeroom.
