RABADA PUTS PROTEAS ON TOP
CLEARLY, Kagiso Rabada didn’t get the memo – the one about not trying too hard in a game that doesn’t matter much.
Instead, Rabada tried harder than ever at Centurion, Pretoria, yesterday and was rewarded with his best figures yet in a career that will grow to many more than his six Tests.
Almost as certain is that he will improve on the 7/112 he took for South Africa on the third day of the fourth Test against England.
Or, as Rabada himself said, “I don’t feel I’ve arrived yet; there’s still lots of work to be done”. Still, those are the best figures by a South African in a Test innings against England since Hugh Tayfield took 9/113 at the Wanderers in February 1957.
Rabada was as close as kids should be allowed to venture to rampant in the grownup’s world of Test cricket, and never more so than when he removed Joe Root, James Taylor and Jonny Bairstow – with an away swinger, a bouncer and a cutter – for no runs in nine deliveries.
“Once I got Root out it was a big relief,” Rabada said. “The day before I was a bit all over the place.”
At an age when others are trying to land a proper job and trying not to drink too much (or not trying), Rabada is excelling on cricket ’ s greatest stage.
“I’m really doing what I wanted to do – it’s amazing.”
Rabada got the honour of making yesterday’s play interesting.
SA were 42/1 in their second innings, a lead of 175, when bad light ended play. They are on top because Rabada did most of the doing in dismissing England for 342 in reply to South Africa’s first innings of 475.