South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada was back with a bang for the first time since the ICC World Cup, headlining the opening day of the first Test against India in Centurion with a haul of 5/44.
Rabada not only completed his 14th five-for in Test cricket, he also breached the 500-wicket mark in international cricket in the process. Among his five wickets on Tuesday were India skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
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It was the delivery that got Kohli caught-behind on 38 that was among the standout moments of Day 1 — in which the visiting team reached 208/8 before heavy rain forced stumps to be declared earlier than usual.
Talking about the dismissal after the day’s play, Rabada said that the Indian batting star got one that swung away late and took the outside edge.
“It swung away late,” Rabada’s smile said all about the delivery which deviated and took the outside edge of Kohli’s bat even as the Indian tried to play for inswing.
“For some reason, most of the times he played and missed, he covered the channel. With him, you always need to be on. I was glad that I could get that fainty (faint edge),” Rabada said.
There are days when the process that one follows gives immaculate results. Rabada had one this day.
“(Such) days happen in cricket. This was my day. Pretty happy with the way I bowled. India have quite a bit of experience and if anyone told us that it will be 208 for 8, we would have taken that before the game,” said Proteas pace spearhead.
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He also praised KL Rahul’s attritional batting.
“His (stroke-making) options were good, he defended well, always someone stands out and he was that batter today,” he added.
The Proteas pacers bowled 65 deliveries on the leg-stump channel with a leg slip in place during the first session.
“The two left-armers were in attack and were swinging the ball in. It seemed like a tactic after lunch. It was Temba (Bavuma), who had a gut feel about how to get wicket and did feel logical to keep leg slip.
“We almost got Virat at square leg. After lunch, it was again a gut feel thing, after lunch, we changed tactics,” Rabada added.
With inputs from PTI
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