A resurgent South Africa pump life into Test game

It was never going to be straightforward. South Africa's cricketers in a pressure game? Perhaps only amphetamines are as reliable in spiking the heart rate.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

After a truly heroic collapse on a wearing Centurion pitch beginning to misbehave like an unruly toddler, number 10 Kagiso Rabada strode to the crease with 49 still required and hopes of smooth progress into the World Test Championship final fading.

A resurgent year for the Proteas meant that a win in either Test of a two-match affair against Pakistan would be enough to book their spot at Lord’s in June; enjoying the comforts of home and a visiting side in the grips of their latest off-field chaos, any other nation might have been counting their chickens. But, alas, this is South Africa, cricket’s chokers, still waiting 30 years on from readmission for their eggs to hatch.

So as Rabada joined Marco Jansen, familiar fears of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory spread – 96-4 had become 998, an implosion that included captain Temba Bavuma walking for a caught behind that he, it quickly transpired, hadn’t hit. The relentless Mohammad Abbas, whirring in unchanged all day from one end of the ground, was poking and probing, proving his three years out of the Pakistan Test set-up a folly.

But Rabada had the cool head and elegant strokeplay to evoke the great left handers and break the tension. An obscene crash over cover; a bludgeon down the ground; a glorious punch on the up, wide of mid-off. “There were little visions of Brian Charles [Lara] at times,” coach Shukri Conrad effused to ESPN Cricinfo, puffing a cigarette in a quiet corner of Centurion after a most satisfying climax.