Teammates draw inspiration from spearhead’s presence

There can be no doubt about it: Kagiso Rabada loves facing Australia.

His rapid recovery from a hamstring injury — which initial reports stated might prevent him from bowling until December — was fuelled by a desire to take on his favourite foe.

After the Proteas’ medical team showed caution, by giving him an extra week to recover and thus miss the Durban Test, he returned in Gqeberha and produced the type of main character performance that galvanises teammates.

From bowling 154km/h rockets to delivering jaffas such as the one to Matt Renshaw that trapped the left-hander lbw and bowled him or gesticulating to the Australians that they’d better go and bat again when South Africa enforced the follow-on, St George’s Park was a full “alpha male” showing from Rabada.

It was almost weird to hear him say in an interview on SuperSport that there were moments of self-doubt before the match. “I was quite nervous. I wasn’t sure where the ball was going to go,” said Rabada.

With his fourth delivery, he found the edge of Australian opener Nic Maddinson’s bat, giving Simon Harmer a comfortable catch at third slip. “Luckily it found the edge in that first over. Those early wickets [in both innings] were important.”

Ten minutes after Rabada had pointed out to the Australians that they would have to bat again, he got Maddinson out for a second time, similarly to the first — though rather than third slip, this time the catch went to wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton.

He finished the match with 6/110 from 35 overs, a lot of labour in his first game back after a hamstring injury.

“First game back, lack of match fitness. I don’t think I’ve ever been that stiff in my life. I was struggling to get to the crease,” he smiled. “Importantly, the hamstring is good.”

A few days to put his feet up, along with time on the massage table, should have him ready for the series decider at Newlands that starts on Tuesday.

Rabada is just four wickets shy of becoming the fourth South African to take 350 Test wickets.

He has 64 wickets against Australia in only 12 tests at an average of 21.1. Dale Steyn, with 70, is the highest South African wicket-taker against the Australians.

Steyn is unequivocal about his support for the man who is following in his footsteps. “KG is the Proteas team. The impact he brings just through his sheer presence, let alone his personal performance, is colossal,” he posted on x.com.

Temba Bavuma and Marco Jansen said the same at St George’s Park. Jansen spoke of how he relied on Rabada for advice and support.

Bavuma echoed Steyn’s sentiments about Rabada’s mere presence affecting the Proteas’ changeroom. “When he’s on the field, he assumes that responsibility and pressure of leading the attack,” said the captain.

“I believe it allows everyone else to go out and do what they need to do: a guy such as Marco in the first innings, him taking a fiver, and then in the second innings, all the other guys coming in, like Wiaan Mulder with crucial wickets there. That’s what a leader does, right?

“KG’s not a big guy in terms of speeches; he’ll speak whenever he sees fit. But I think with the figure that he is, he is inspiring in a lot of ways.”