Rabada finished with the second-best match figures by a South African bowler in Tests
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
South Africa pace bowler Kagiso Rabada stole the spotlight once again as he ripped through England’s batting line-up with six wickets to power the Proteas to a 280-run win.
Rabada’s match figures of 13/144 are the second-best by a South African bowler in Tests and he just missed out on beating Makhaya Ntini, who holds the record for the best bowling figures by a South Africa in Test history with figures of 13/132 against the West Indies in 2005.
Starting out the day on 52/3, England were dealt two quick blows early on as James Taylor and Joe Root were dismissed by Morne Morkel and Dane Piedt for 24 and 20 respectively.
This was the beginning of the domino effect as Rabada came in and took out England’s batsmen one after another until they were eventually bowled out for a dismal 101.
While South Africa’s 280-run victory was only a consolation win, it would have given the Proteas a major confidence boost as the series ended 2-1 in England’s favour rather than 3-0.
Rabada was easily the pick of the bowlers with six wickets, while Morkel snapped up three and Piedt claimed one.
England captain Alastair Cook was disappointed with his side’s performance, and said: “It’s been a disappointing five days, the way we’ve played, we haven’t quite been on it. Credit to South Africa, we weren’t at the races today. We spoke about trying to build a partnership to start with, get these guys into their second and third spells… We didn’t get the balance right, we try and play positive but you have to earn the right. Can’t really fault the lads too much, we’re standing here having won 2-1, they’ve done well but it shows how much work we still have to do.
“This [match] was a bit different, in terms of the toss being quite important. We’ve got players who can change the game, moments when we get on a roll and it’s hard to stop us. Taking our catches makes a massive difference to the side… But we’ll enjoy today, enjoy the moment, credit to the lads and to our supporters, who put a smile on our faces even when we lose as badly as we did today.”
South Africa skipper AB de Villiers was delighted to end the Test series on a high, and said: “We’ll enjoy the celebrations to come. Very excited about some of the guys to come through and take the opportunity, very proud of him [Kagiso Rabada], not every day you come around and take 13 wickets in the match, proud of Temba too. We showed a lot of character. To take seven wickets this morning in the time we did was not part of our thinking. They have match-winners in their team, so we’re wary of that, but Morne started us off well, Dane as well, and it went from there.
“The team is in a really good space, enjoying their cricket, and it’s a good place to be in. We’ve got a long way to go, bit of a rebuilding phase for us, we’ve lost some big guys over the recent years, we’ve got guys coming in and learning and hopefully we’re going the right way.”
Rabada was named Man of the Match, and said: “It was a bit up and down, so the key was to hit the deck and bowl in a good area and you’ll get your rewards. I wasn’t telling him [de Villiers] how many overs I wanted to bowl. When he tells me to warm up, I warm up. Credit to [Kyle Abbott] he came out and bowled with half a hamstring. I’m really enjoying playing with the guys.”
England all-rounder Ben Stokes was named Man of the Series for scoring 411 runs, which included a career-best score of 258, at an average of 58.71 and taking 12 wickets at an average of 29.16.
[prefer batting or bowling?] “I think batting but it’s nice to be contributing with both,” he said. “[Base provided by Cook, Root] It does help, it makes batting really simple, we just let each other play the way we want to. The accidental yorker comes out every now and again, but yeah, it’s nice to chip in with wickets as well.”