The “Future Looks Bright” as Rabada Takes 13 to Clinch South African Victory!

Kagiso Rabada is not just the Man of the Match. He’s the Man of the Moment whose phenomenal performance today helped propel South Africa to defeat England in the final Test by a whopping 280 runs!

Rabada’s second innings return of 6/32 gave him a match return of 13/144 which is the second best in South Africa’s Test history! And this was only his sixth Test ever. Plus he’s not even 21 yet… making him the youngest South African to ever take 10 wickets or more in a match.

It was a well-timed achievement to lift the spirits of cricket fans who have been bitterly disappointed by news of match-fixing in the sport.

As CricketSA tweeted today “this match can be seen as the start of a new era in South African Test cricket with Stephen Cook, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock and Rabada all making strong statements.”

Rabada’s record is beaten only by Makhaya Ntini who took 13/132 against the West Indies in 2005 – and is South Africa’s best return against England, beating Hugh Tayfield’s 13/192 at Wanderers in the 1956/57 season.

Ntini posted a photo to Instagram of the two of them together, saying: “Take that sport lovers the 13th man wickets together.”

Speaking to reporters after the match, Rabada remained humble saying “I can only control the controllables… The key is to do it for 15 years, not one game” and that “it was a team effort. I’m happy we won and I contributed”. And he brushed off suggestions that he carried the match, crediting Morne Morkel, Kyle Abbott and everyone in the team (as well as the ball for “coming out nicely”!).

“I’m still a youngster, I wasn’t carrying anything, the guys were carrying me,” he said.

Rabada took his second five-wicket haul of the match to rout England’s batting on the final morning of the Sunfoil Test series at SuperSport Park in Pretoria today, Tuesday. The England innings lasted only a further 13.4 overs as they were dismissed for 101 runs with the last seven wickets falling for 49 runs.

Although it gave the Proteas an awesome victory, England take the series 2-1 and therefore regain the Basil d’Oliveira Trophy for the first time in 8 years.

According to the ICC Rankings, this now puts India in first place, Australia second and South Africa third, with Pakistan and England in fourth and fifth respectively.

Rabada now has three five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul after six Test matches in which he has taken 24 wickets in all. This is exactly the same number of wickets as Dale Steyn took in his first six Test matches.

Even though England dominated this series – it was South Africa’s Hashim Amla who finished as leading run scorer and Rabada leading wicket-taker, with 22 wickets after playing in only 3 matches. England’s Ben Stokes was named Sunfoil Man of the Series.

Several well known personalities and organisations took to Twitter to congratulate Rabada. Arrive Alive said “May there be many more successes and may you inspire all our young cricketers!!”

Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula said “the future is bright”.

Today the minister welcomed Cricket SA’s decision to ban Gulam Bodi for 20 years after reports of match fixing. Tonight he will meet with CSA leadership to receive a comprehensive report on the magnitude of match fixing and to deliberate on what is to be done to safeguard cricket.

The Minister said this afternoon that South African cricket is gradually regaining its original grandeur, and that it was impressive to watch young players like Kagiso Rabada and Temba Bavuma coming through the ranks.

On Twitter:

Rabada leads final morning rout of England – Read more: https://t.co/TWWPH7Ml5m #SunfoilTest #SAvENG #ProteaFire pic.twitter.com/2iKXziLS2B

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 26, 2016

Look what we found. Here’s the ball that caused the havoc this morning. Fantastic effort @KagisoRabada25 #ProteaFire pic.twitter.com/242EW5UqYT

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 26, 2016

Sources: Cricket SA and SANews.gov.za