Rabada reveals key reason behind Lord's Aussie onslaught
London, June 12 (UNI) As South Africa' skipper Temba Bavuma won the toss and opted to bowl in the ICC World Test Championship Final 2025 against Australia at Lord's, the onus with the new ball fell to Kagiso Rabada and the seasoned campaigner took little time to make his mark on the Ultimate Test.
Removing Australia opener Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in his opening burst, Rabada went on to claim his 17th five-wicket haul in Tests. His spell helped South Africa bundle the defending champions out for 212.
But Rabada believes the Proteas could've managed to run through the Aussie batting much sooner.
'212, we'd take that. We thought we should've had them at 160, but that's just the way the game goes,' the pacer told reporters at the end of the day's play at Lord's.
With Australia five wickets down for 146, Beau Webster took command of the first innings with a handy knock of 72.
Rabada lavished praise on the all-rounder, who shifted gears after seeing through South Africa's
pace battery early on in his innings, an ICC report said.
'Yeah, he didn't start off too well there, looked like he was going to get out any ball but I guess his positive intent got him through,' he said.
Rabada eventually got rid of Webster, and marked his bowling figures by overtaking Alan Donald as the fourth-highest wicket-taker for the Proteas in Tests.
'To be named in that list of bowlers is special,' Rabada said on the milestone.
'As a player growing up and representing South Africa, I've been inspired by those who have come before and seen what they have done on the big stage. To be listed among those names is special and long may it continue,' he said.
While Rabada was the pick of the bowlers for South Africa, Australia pacers also made early inroads towards the end of Day 1 at Lord's.
Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and skipper Pat Cummins all struck with the ball as South Africa closed the day at 43/4.
'I think the ball is nipping quite a bit, at times nipping off the slope quite a lot. But I still felt like batters could get in. If you just put more balls in the right area for a long period of time that would create chances," Rabada said.
'Right now, we're 43/4, not the start we were looking for but there's a lot of cricket to be played in this Test match. So we're just going to keep going for it,' he added.
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Temba Bavuma's DRS Call Gives Rise To Controversy; Players, Umpires, Commentators Left Surprised
Day 2 of the ongoing 2023-25 World Test Championship final between South Africa and Australia had a couple of controversial moments. Both of them took place during the Proteas' batting at Lord's in London on Thursday. One of them included South Africa captain Temba Bavuma. The right-handed batter was hit on the back pad while playing a back of a length delivery from Australia's Josh Hazlewood. The ball nipped in and hit Bavuma with the umpire raising his finger over an appeal for an LBW. The South Africa captain took his time as he went to David Bedingham at the other end, had a chat with him and then decided to go upstairs. Prima facie it looked that Bavuma was out but the replay had a different result. While there was a decent gap when the ball passed the bat, UltraEdge showed a spike there, forcing the third umpire to reverse the decision made by the ground umpire. DRS saved Temba Bavuma — Gurlabh Singh (@gurlabhsingh610) June 12, 2025 The Australian players were left in shock. Commentator Ian Smith was also surprised over the decision while Mel Jones too had similar thoughts about it. "Well that's an interesting one for me, I've got to say. Because it took forever to think about reviewing it. When you feel as if you've got a touch on it you just automatically say 'I'm sorry, I'm reviewing that because I believe my bat has made contact with the ball there'. There was no semblance of that in that discussion. That was so interesting," said Jones. "This was the slightly controversial one because everything aligned in terms of the LBW shout," she said over another Bavuma's reaction was all about 'do we use the review, was it going to hit'. It didn't feel at all like he had that inside edge," she added. Appears to be a gap between the bat and ball For someone who got an inside edge Bavuma looked far from convinced he hit it before review. #WTC2025 #AUSvSA — Bernie Coen (@berniecoen) June 12, 2025 Bavuma was clearly out! Clearly some technical glitch on the snickometer. There was clearly no edge! — Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) June 12, 2025 In another controversial moment on the day, Australia spinner Beau Webster's delivery nipped back in and got an inside edge of David Bedingham's bat and nearly stopped close to his pad. As Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey was moving close to the batter to catch the ball, Bedingham collected the ball, which was in motion and dropped it on the ground. There were a couple of appeals, from Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith. Australia wicketkeeper Carey went ahead with the appeal, pointing out towards an obstruction of field, but the umpires were unconvinced. Australia captain Pat Cummins ended up laughing over the incident.
