Rabada finishes off Australian resistance as Proteas square series

KAGISO RABADA set the tone for what turned out to be the final day’s play as he dismissed Mitchell Marsh with his sixth delivery to set the Standard Bank Proteas up for a series-levelling six-wicket victory over Australia at St. George’s Park on Monday. Rabada went on to finish with 3 of the 5 wickets on the final morning as the Proteas were left to score 101 for victory. Rabada’s innings return of 6/104 gave him his fourth 10-wicket haul at this level, only one shy of Dale Steyn’s South African best. As this is only his 28th Test match the 22-year-old could rewrite the South African bowling record book. He has taken 30 wickets in five Tests in the current calendar year and this was his second 10-fer this summer. AB de Villiers unbeaten century in the first innings must have pushed him hard as Rabada took the Sunfoil Man of the Match award with his match figures of 11/150. The lesson from this match for the Proteas was that they need their big-name players to fire when they come across opponents of this quality – and De Villiers and Rabada did that. The two teams now move on to PPC Newlands for the third Sunfoil Test match starting on Thursday week with the final Test over the Easter weekend at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. The Sunfoil Education Trust (SET) benefited to the tune of R225 000 from this match from the boundaries and sixes struck by the two sides and the wickets taken, bringing the cumulative total for the series to date to R479 000.