Centurion: Kagiso Rabada was at his lethal best, knocking the stuffing out of India’s batting prima donnas’ with a fifer on a track offering extra and variable bounce as South Africa took control of the proceedings on the opening day of the first Test here Tuesday.
KL Rahul (70 batting, 105 balls) continued his love affair with Supersport Park, displaying excellent temperament on a difficult pitch taking India to 208 for 8 in 59 overs when rain forced early stumps.
Rabada (5/44 in 17 overs) bowled two of the most intimidating and incisive spells witnessed in recent times to completely rock the Indian batting line-up, which struggled to cope with the conditions.
One of the finest fast bowlers in contemporary cricket, Rabada bowled an absolute peach to dismiss Virat Kohli (38 off 64 balls) with the old ball after having bounced out Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (5) in his first spell.
In between, Shreyas Iyer (31 off 50 balls), who lived dangerously, got a shooter that completely exposed his defence.
Rabada’s 14th five-wicket haul in Tests also comprised the scalp of Ravichandran Ashwin, who was flummoxed by the extra bounce, and Shardul Thakur (24), who after a gutsy effort was softened by a bouncer to be taken out with a length delivery later.
Rahul looked solid but is slowly running out of partners as a first innings score of 250 looks a distant reality now.
Rabada, who was given a break from white ball leg, didn’t need time to hit the rhythm as he bowled long spells, got a disconcerting bounce along with late swing that had the Indian batters in a tangle.
The manner in which Kohli was forced into making a mistake was an education for young pacers.
Rabada bowled a couple of incoming deliveries to pin him on the backfoot and then unleashed his deadly weapon.
He made a nearly 31-over-old Kookaburra to move in and kept it on fuller length as Kohli shaped himself to play inside the line of the delivery.
But to his amazement, the ball pitched and deviated late to take the outside edge en route to keeper Kyle Verreynne’s hands.
Kohli got a massive reprieve in the first session when he was on four as Tony de Zorzi dropped a dolly at square leg off debutant Nandre Burger (2/39) but he then carried out the repair work with Iyer.
At the toss, Temba Bavuma took the expected decision of bowling first and his bowlers did make the best use of the conditions during that initial hour.