Rabada savours watershed moment in South Africa cricket and toasts ‘special, special, special’ win for the side.
Rabada savours a very monumental win for South Africa and looks ahead for greater things.
We are all familiar with the proverb that states that we have the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, and that they fight to control our behaviour. Throughout the World Test Championship final, Kagiso Rabada kept a variation of that in mind and chose to focus on the good.
“There are normally two voices in your head, the one that doubts and the one that believes. The second is the one that we keep feeding, especially in big moments like this, the World Test Championship final,” Rabada told reporters at Lord’s. “That’s why you saw the performances you saw. It’s a testament to our team this season.”
South Africa took the lead early in a tight 10-session Test match by bowling Australia out for 212, but they wasted it as they fell to 138 all out. To give South Africa a chance, it was essential to limit Australia in the second innings.
At one point, they had Australia at 73 for 7, and South Africa could have been chasing as few as 200. That soared to 282, but Conrad thought it was manageable on a flattening field and gave his bowlers, especially Rabada, credit for laying the groundwork for their triumph.
Rabada refused to see himself in that light. “I don’t see myself as a star,” he said, despite the statistics which suggest otherwise. He is fourth on South Africa’s all-time wicket-taker’s list and has the best strike rate in the game for anyone with more than 200 wickets.
“I see myself as someone who’s willing to give my blood for this team and continue working hard and improving. That’s me as a cricketer, always wanting to improve and playing for the badge with a lot of pride. I’ve been working extremely hard, and those second-innings spells, those are the ones that count more, when you’re a bit tired. You could be behind the game, or you could be ahead of the game. This time, we’re behind the game. But I think it was just about staying calm and looking at what’s in front of us. That’s the way I see myself.”
“I’ll never forget this in my life. None of the boys will forget this in their lives. Playing against Australia, they’re a well-accustomed team, a bit of an ageing team, with all due respect. Some of those guys were playing when we were still in high school,” he said. “So this is special, special, special. It hasn’t sunk in yet. I can’t really describe.”