CAPE TOWN: Kagiso Rabada took center stage in the match he nearly didn’t appear in, smashing out David Warner’s off stump as South Africa pushed ahead in the third Test against Australia here at Newlands on Friday.

Having dramatically overturned a two-Test ban in the week before the game, Rabada won his latest tussle with Warner and took 3-81 to help keep Australia to 245-9 in their first innings. That put Australia 66 runs behind South Africa’s 311 in a Test where the winners can’t lose the series.

It might have been even better for South Africa if tailender Nathan Lyon hadn’t launched an adventurous counterattack for Australia at the end of the day, when he thumped 47 off 38 balls in a 66-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Tim Paine (33 not out).

Still, on 266-8 overnight and tottering themselves, the South Africans wouldn’t have imagined they’d hold such a solid lead.

Rabada played a major role in that with ball and bat.

First, he was part of a late 50-run stand for South Africa that took the home team past 300. Opener Dean Elgar batted through the innings for his 141 not out and Rabada hung around for 22 useful runs.

Rabada then shared the limelight in South Africa’s bowling effort with Morne Morkel, the retiring fast bowler who took his 300th Test wicket on the way to 4-87. The pair combined to subdue Australia’s batsmen after opener Warner raced to 30 off 14 balls, hitting all of his five fours and a six off Rabada. Fellow opener Cameron Bancroft made a stoical 77.

Rabada, in trouble for his over-the-top celebrations in the second Test, one of them screaming in the face of Warner, behaved himself on day two.

Rabada’s strike to get Warner was the big early blow that set the tone for South Africa.

It came after Warner hit three successive fours off Rabada in one over. In the next, he hooked a huge six over the backward square leg boundary. The ball needed to be recovered from a roof of one of the stands by a man using a crutch.

Warner sliced the next delivery for another four, but was out the ball after when Rabada tightened his line and smashed the off stump out the ground.

Rabada was also in the midst of it for the second wicket to fall, taking the catch at backward square leg that dismissed Usman Khawaja off Morkel.

The Australians were going at nearly six runs in the first session, due mainly to Warner.

That run-rate was reined in as Rabada and Morkel went to work, while Vernon Philander pitched in with 2-26.

Morkel captured Shaun Marsh caught behind for No. 300 in Test cricket and celebrated the milestone excitedly as his international career approaches the end. He broke out of a team huddle to pump his fists down toward the ground and then looked up at the sky.

He is the fifth South African to reach 300 Test wickets after Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Allan Donald. Morkel also finally put a stop to Lyon’s antics at the end of the day, which threatened to erase South Africa’s position of dominance. Lyon swung lustily to hit eight fours in his highest score in Tests.

Scoreboard

SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings, overnight 266-8):

D. Elgar not out 141
A. Markram c Smith b Hazlewood 0
H. Amla c Cummins b Hazlewood 31
A. de Villiers c Warner b Cummins 64
F. du Plessis c Smith b Cummins 5
T. Bavuma c Smith b Cummins 1
Q. de Kock c Paine b Cummins 3
V. Philander c Paine b M. Marsh 8
K. Maharaj c Bancroft b Starc 3
K. Rabada c Smith b Lyon 22
M. Morkel c Smith b Lyon 4

EXTRAS (B-13, LB-11, NB-3, W-2) 29

TOTAL (all out, 97.5 overs) 311

FALL OF WKTS: 1-6, 2-92, 3-220, 4-234, 5-236, 6-242, 7-254, 8-257, 9-307

BOWLING: Starc 21-3-81-1 (2nb); Hazlewood 23-4-59-2; Lyon 19.5-6-43-2; Cummins 26-6-78-4 (1w); M. Marsh 7-2-26-1 (1nb, 1w); Smith 1-1-0-0

AUSTRALIA (1st Innings):

C. Bancroft lbw b Philander 77
D. Warner b Rabada 30
U. Khawaja c Rabada b Morkel 5
S. Smith c Elgar b Morkel 5
S. Marsh c De Kock b Morkel 26
M. Marsh c De Kock b Philander 5
T. Paine not out 33
P. Cummins c De Villiers b Rabada 4
M. Starc c De Villiers b Rabada 2
N. Lyon c Elgar b Morkel 47
J. Hazlewood not out 1

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-5, NB-4) 10

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 67 overs) 245

FALL OF WKTS: 1-43, 2-61, 3-72, 4-150, 5-150, 6-156, 7-173, 8-175, 9-241

BOWLING (to-date): Philander 15-5-26-2 (1nb); Rabada 19-1-81-3 (3nb); Morkel 20-6-87-4; Maharaj 12-3-35-0; Bavuma 1-0-10-0

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2018