Anderson goes past Botham, Ashwin to take 28th fifer in Tests

Cape Town, Jan 5 (IANS) England pace spearhead James Anderson surpassed Ian Botham and Ravichandran Ashwin with the most Test fifers as he returned with figures of 5/40 on Day 3 of the second Test against South Africa at Newlands here on Sunday.

Anderson, 37, racked up his 28th five-wicket haul as he dismissed Anrich Nortje, who was caught by Ben Stokes as England polished things off for a very handy lead of 46. South Africa managed 223 in reply to England's 269 in the first innings.

Ashwin and Botham have 27 five-wicket hauls to their name in Tests. Anderson moved to the eighth spot in the list of most five-wicket hauls in Test cricket.

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan has the most number of fifers in Tests (67), followed by Australian Shane Warne (37), New Zealand's Richard Hadlee (36), Anil Kumble (35), Rangana Herath (34) and Glenn Mcgrath (29).