FILE PHOTO: Cricket - First Test - South Africa v India - SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion, South Africa - December 28, 2023 South Africa's Kagiso Rabada reacts after running out India's Jasprit Bumrah REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Kagiso Rabada has performed plenty of heroics for his country, earning a reputation as a fearsome bowler with more than 300 test wickets, but rarely has he delivered as dramatic a performance as he did with the bat on Sunday to take South Africa to a two-wicket win over Pakistan.
Rabada struck an unbeaten 31 as South Africa squeaked through to a dramatic first-test victory at Centurion and ensured themselves a place in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s next June.
"There was a lot of pressure on today. This without doubt is the one innings that I will remember for the rest of my life," Rabada said after the rousing finish.
Batting at No. 10, Rabada came in just before lunch with his team in dire straits, having slumped from a winning position as they chased a modest target.
South Africa needed 148 runs for victory and despite a nervy start looked on course at 96-4 before a sudden collapse saw them reduced to 99-8 and facing imminent defeat.
But Rabada and Marco Jansen put on an unbeaten 51-run partnership including a host of elegant, flourishing shots that any established batter would have been proud of to haul the team over the line.
The 29-year-old said he had a plan in his head and told Jansen so when he got to the crease.
"When I came in, I said to him that I was going to look to be positive. Without any hesitation he said 'OK'. He had his own game-plan, his main thing was one ball at a time, play it on its merit, and that's what he did. He was a bit more orthodox, I was unorthodox, but it worked out."
The pair took the score to 116-8 at lunch, but the odds were still stacked against them with Pakistan requiring only two more wickets and seamer Mohammed Abbas in full flight after taking six wickets in the innings.
COMMON VICE
At lunch, Jansen and Rabada huddled with coach Shukri Conrad in the corner as they shared their common vice – a puff on a cigarette.
Conrad said he was refreshingly blunt with them: "Whatever they were going to do, they had to back themselves from the start. I said 'If you are going to go, then go balls to the wall, even if you get close, just continue with what you set out to do'."
Rabada then came out and hit some lusty blows as he and his partner knocked off the remaining 32 runs needed.
"There were little visions of Brian Charles there at times," Conrad joked, in a reference to West Indian great Brian Lara.
"The main thing I was thinking about was to continue to stay positive. If I went into my shell and got out doing that, then I was going to be upset. If I went out being positive I would have accepted that," Rabada added.
Meanwhile his captain, Temba Bavuma, hid for most of the drama after his dismissal sparked the earlier mini-collapse. "I was sulking in the toilet," he told a post-match press conference.
"I didn’t know what to say to Marco and KG (Rabada) and KG sits next to me. I only came out when we needed about 15 runs to win."
A teary Bavuma had no words for Rabada's feat when the changeroom celebrations kicked off. "I just jumped on him."
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Hugh Lawson)
