In the 61st Test match of his career, Kagiso Rabada finally managed to take his first-ever Test five-wicket haul against India on Tuesday in Centurion.
Kagiso Rabada ended the rain-marred Day 1 of the Centurion Test with figures of 5/44 in India’s score of 208/8. His wickets included that of India’s best and biggest superstar, Virat Kohli.
After India lost three early wickets, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer did a good job to rebuild the innings until Lunch. However, at the start of the second session, Rabada brought out his best and sent down two almost unplayable deliveries – first to castle Shreyas Iyer, and then to take Kohli’s outside edge.
In the first session, South Africa had bowled short often and into Kohli’s body. They were almost rewarded when Kohli popped one to Tony de Zorzi at square leg, but the fielder dropped it.
Most of the time Virat Kohli covers that channel: Kagiso Rabada
But after Lunch Rabada was fired up even more, and, he said, they changed their plans. Rabada went length and full, angled one ball into Kohli, which the batter had to play on the off-stump. But the ball moved away just enough to take Kohli’s outside edge.
At the end of the day, Kagiso Rabada talked about South Africa’s plans to Kohli in the first two sessions and the eventual dismissal.
“Seeing that we have two left-armers in our attack, we generally tried to swing the ball in [to the right-handers], and with the bounce we could extract from the wicket it seemed like that was the tactic to go with at the time,. Temba had a gut feel about the best way to get wickets. It did make sense to have the leg slip – it almost worked to Virat; he got dropped at square leg. After lunch we had to change tactics. We re-adjusted and looked to bowl channel,” Rabada said
“It just swung away late. Most of the time he covers that channel or plays and misses. He’s a fantastic player, and against him you really have to be on. So I’m glad I got the fainty there.”
Kagiso Rabada has taken 500 international wickets at the age of just 28.
– A legend in the making…!!! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/kR8TaCvnfR
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) December 26, 2023
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