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“He’s going to smack you in the head. But he
refuses to.
But you will be hit somewhere by Kagiso Rabada. If
you’re Shardul Thakur, your forearm. If you’re Jasprit Bumrah, your glove. If
you’re nearly anyone else, your ego.
Rabada had the SuperSport Park fans writing songs with
his name in them, regardless of the fact that he hasn’t had any competitive
action in five and a half weeks, has been recovering from a bruised heel in the
run-up to this match, and has bowling partners with a combined total of 13 Test
matches under their belts. With favourable overhead and ground conditions,
South Africa elected to bowl first, and he took his 14th five-for—his first
against India—and placed them in a position of relative contentment.
Following his lead, Marco Jansen produced three overs
of primarily short balls at the other end, none of which were very dangerous.
Jansen hasn’t quite looked the same since India humiliated him at Eden Gardens
during the World Cup. Rabada thinks this is because he had to “ride out
and find a way” through the growing pains of playing international
cricket, and Nandre Burger took his position.
“Seeing as though we have two left-armers in our
attack, we were trying to swing the ball in and with the bounce we could
extract, that was a tactic. Temba had a gut feel about the best way to get a
wicket, so it did make sense and it almost worked for Virat,” Rabada said.
However, South Africa needed a little while to adapt
to their backup plan when it didn’t work out. India reached 91 in 26 overs at
lunchtime, having scored 53 runs in 12.1 overs and little over four runs per
over after falling behind 38 for 3 when Kohli was removed in the 14th over.
That might not be a disastrous change in momentum, but South Africa had to
recover at that point after losing Temba Bavuma to a hamstring injury for the
second time in as many games.
Rabada has had to assume more responsibility since
making his debut against India in 2015, when he was selected for the starting
XI due to an ailing Morne Morkel. However, he has only had to do so once, and
that was today. The remaining members of South Africa’s attack had 12 caps and
45 wickets between them during the 2019 Test match against India in Ranchi;
today, they have 13 caps and 53 wickets. Then, under somewhat different
circumstances, India declared on 497 for 9, and Rabada took 3 for 85. He is 5 for
44 this time, and India is 208 for 8, a total that Rabada believes South Africa
would have won.
There is more rain around, though the forecast has
been incorrect so far, but historically the second and third days are best for
SuperSport Park. If the weather continues to puzzle and the pitch plays to
reputation, South Africa would be right to consider themselves in front.