Rabada celebrates SA call-up with four-wicket haul

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

KAGISO Rabada celebrated his selection to SA’s T20 squad this week by knocking the Knights off their horses on the opening day of the second round of this season’s franchise first-class matches on Thursday.

Fast bowler Rabada, just 19 and playing in his seventh match at this level, took a career-best 4/57 for the Lions in Potchefstroom. On Tuesday, he was named in the squad that will play three T20 internationals in Australia next month.

Rabada’s effort spearheaded a disciplined bowling performance by the home side that also featured Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s 3/57 and Aaron Phangiso’s 2/52.

The Lions put the Knights in to bat, and the decision had paid off by lunch with Tsotsobe taking all three wickets that fell in the morning session.

Tsotsobe bowled immaculately to have Reeza Hendricks caught at second slip, Gerhardt Abrahams taken behind and Gihahn Cloete trapped in front.

A fifth-wicket stand of 86 between Rudi Second and Obus Pienaar slowed the Lions’ progress, but they made short work of the Knights’ often sturdy tail by claiming the last five wickets for 59 runs.

Second’s 72 and Werner Coetsee’s 57 were the Knights’ only half-centuries in their total of 267.

However, the advantage the Lions had earned lost its shine after just two balls of their reply. With the first of them, Quinton Friend removed Stephen Cook. With the next, Friend and Tumela Bodibe’s diving catch dismissed Temba Bavuma.

Rassie van der Dussen and Dominic Hendricks saw out the rest of the eight overs the Lions faced on Thursday to take them to stumps on 20/2.

In Benoni, the Titans lost only Heino Kuhn in a morning session in which they scored 91 runs. But three wickets tumbled between lunch and tea, among them that of Theunis de Bruyn – who drilled 17 fours and a six before falling to Simon Harmer for 95.

That reduced the Titans to 176/4, the signal for Roelof van der Merwe to join Farhaan Behardien in a partnership that endured for almost three hours and added 155 to the total.

It was ended when Harmer had Behardien leg-before for 74, but Van der Merwe’s 80 not out guided his team to 336/5 at the close.