Rabada and Jansen strike huge blows to give Proteas advantage at lunch

Two wickets each for Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen gave South Africa a thunderous start on the opening morning of the World Test Championship final against Australia on Wednesday.

After Temba Bavuma chose to bowl under grey London skies, Rabada bowled a magnificent spell from the Nursery End to send a crowd, the vast majority of whom are supporting the Proteas, into raptures.

Jansen delivered a double blow in half an hour before lunch to leave Australia reeling on 67/4. 

Only Steve Smith, who’d engaged in several elaborate leaves, survived the onslaught and he will resume after the interval on 26. 

South Africa’s catching in the slips and then a sublime diving effort from Kyle Verreynne to pick up the vital wicket of Travis Head were highlights of session that was the stuff of dreams for the Proteas.

Bavuma’s decision to bowl was, he said, an obvious one, given the conditions and the main strength of his side: its bowling.

To call the Australian openers, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne — playing in that position for the first time — watchful would be an understatement. Khawaja barely hit the ball off the square, while Labuschagne was fidgety.

Khawaja faced 20 balls and didn’t score, his innings ended by a lovely delivery from Rabada that nipped away just enough from the left-hander. The Australian opener edged to first slip David Bedingham, who held a sharp catch, doing well to ignore Aiden Markram standing next to him, who moved towards the ball but pulled out at the last second. 

After gifting Cameron Green a boundary first ball, Rabada took his second wicket, this time a full delivery that had the tall Green losing his balance. The edge this time flew low towards Markram at second slip and he did superbly to ignore Wiaan Mulder diving across him to hold onto the ball. 

Those two wickets were certainly nerve-settlers for the South Africans, with Rabada, who came into this match after being suspended for a month after testing positive for cocaine, justifying his status as one of the world’s great bowlers. 

The most disappointing part of the session was Lungi Ngidi’s spell from the Pavilion End. It was largely innocuous and having snuck into the starting XI ahead of Dane Paterson, he needs to show significant improvement to justify that decision.

But Jansen ensured those concerns could be dealt with in a more relaxed fashion at the interval as he returned for his second spell from the Pavilion End, picking up Labuschagne, who pushed at a delivery that for the most part he’d been leaving alone. His 17 took 55 balls and Labuschagne will know he wasted a lot of hard labour. 

Head arrived and took a wild swing at the first ball he faced, then thrashed Jansen through point to register only the sixth boundary for Australia in the morning session. 

The big blow came in the 24th over, with Head nudging at a ball down leg side and Verreynne hurling himself to his right and snagging a brilliant one-handed catch to send Head — player of the match in the 2023 WTC final — trudging back to the changeroom for 11. 

Smith was lucky, too, to survive an lbw call on 26 after South Africa chose to review, but the replays indicated the ball only clipping leg-stump, thus umpire Chris Gaffney’s on-field call of not out stood.