London: Kagiso Rabada claimed 5-51 and moved past Allan Donald to be at fourth spot on South Africa’s all-time wicket-takers list as the side bowled out Australia for 212 on day one of the World Test Championship Final at the Lord’s Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
Australia had entered the third session at 190/5 in 50 overs, but Rabada wrapped up the innings in post-tea session in just 36 minutes. For Australia, Beau Webster top-scored with 72 while Steve Smith hit 66. Supporting Rabada in his pursuit were Marco Jansen’s 3-49, while Keshav Maharaj and Aiden Markram took a wicket each.
In the post-tea session, Alex Carey fell straightaway as his attempt to reverse-sweep off Keshav Maharaj resulted in his stumps being castled for 23. Rabada then came in to knock off Pat Cummins, before having Webster edging to first slip. After Jansen castled Nathan Lyon through the gate, Rabada bursts through Mitchell Starc’s defences to end Australia’s innings.
Previously, from the word go, Rabada and Jansen nailed their lengths from the word go to keep Australia on a tight leash. Rabada rattled Australia in the seventh over by Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the span of four balls. He first came in from round the wicket to extract Khawaja’s edge and have him caught at first slip, as the batter fell for a 20-ball duck.
Rabada then got one to shape away from Green and the edge was caught by low-diving third slip, as the batter fell for four on his return to Tests after nearly a year. Lungi Ngidi, back in Test match action after 10 months, and Wiaan Mulder continued to be tight in their lines and lengths to keep Smith and Labuschagne on a tight leash.
With Smith found some boundaries, South Africa continued to strike as Labuschagne poked at one from Jansen and nicked behind to keeper. At the stroke of lunch, Jansen produced another huge moment by having Travis Head strangled down leg to make it a really good first session of Test cricket for South Africa.
In the second session, Smith, batting with an outside the leg-stump stance and a trademark exaggerated back-and-across movement, stole three quick boundaries off Rabada and Jansen. But Webster was all at sea, struggling to survive in tough conditions. With luck on his side, Webster survived twice in as many overs.
On four, was first beaten on the outside edge and trapped lbw by Marco Jansen, but ball tracking showed umpire’s call on impact. Then against Rabada on eight, Webster was clearly lbw, but with South Africa fearing it was inside edge, they didn’t take the review. To their dismay, replays showed the ball hitting stumps and that it would have been out if South Africa took the review.
Smith eventually got his fifty in 76 balls by slashing Rabada through backward point for four, before he and a now-settled Webster took boundaries off Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj. But in a bid to smack Aiden Markram through covers, Smith could only get a healthy outside edge and was caught by first slip on his third attempt.
Though Webster was living dangerously, he got his second Test fifty off 69 deliveries and ensured Australia had a bright second session after a gloomy first session. But after that, Carey’s reverse sweep opened the floodgates for South Africa to bring Australia’s innings to a swift end.
Brief Scores: Australia 212 in 56.4 overs (Beau Webster 72, Steve Smith 66; Kagiso Rabada 5/51, Marco Jansen 3/49) against South Africa
(IANS)
