By Patrick Compton.
Debutant Gerald Coetzee claimed his first test wicket while Kagiso Rabada delivered a wonder ball to dismiss West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite on the second morning of the first Betway test at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday.
The West Indies went to lunch on 71 for two wickets in 20 overs, still trailing by 271 runs after they had earlier claimed the final two wickets to dismiss South Africa for 342.
It was paceman Alzarri Joseph who did the trick for the tourists, grabbing both wickets to record his first five-wicket haul in test cricket in his 27th match. The first to go was Coetzee who gloved a vicious lifter to Jason Holder at slip while Anrich Nortje looped one to cover where Tagenarine Chanderpaul pulled off a good diving catch.
Joseph’s feat was richly deserved as he was the outstanding bowler throughout the South African innings. Although the 26-year-old Barbadian didn’t swing the ball, he always bowled with good pace, touching on 150kph at times, and he maintained his aggressive approach. He’s always been regarded as a bowler of promise and it’s surprising that before today his best test figures were only 3-33. His feat at Centurion may be a significant landmark in his developing career.
Rabada bowled a superb opening spell when the West Indies batted, maintaining a superb line and length to the right-handed Brathwaite and the left-handed Chanderpaul, in many ways the precise image of his famous father, Shivnarine, the second-highest run-scorer (11 867) in West Indies cricket after Brian Lara.
Rabada’s threat climaxed in his fourth over when he angled one in on a perfect length to Brathwaite, the ball just leaving the batsman enough to clip the top of his off-stump. Rabada will rarely bowl a better ball and Brathwaite, caught on the crease and squared up, could simply put that dismissal down to the bowler’s art.
Chanderpaul, with a similar trigger movement to his father, starting with an open stance, looked very solid and well-balanced and he struck some fine boundaries through the on-side and square on the off-side. An aggressive lofted drive for four off Coetzee may have been his downfall, though. The debutant changed from bowling over to round the wicket and bowled a similar ball, slightly shorter in length, that the left-hander drove at, edging a waist-high chance to Senuran Muthusamy’s right at gully that he brilliantly hung onto.
Raymond Reifer – another son of a former West Indian cricketer, Floyd – and Jermaine Blackwood, who struck a couple of fine shots straight and through the covers, then saw the tourists through to the break.
SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (capt), Keegan Petersen, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Senuran Muthusamy, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Gerald Coetzee
WEST INDIES: Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Raymon Reifer, Jermaine Blackwood, Kyle Mayers, Roston Chase, Joshua da Silva (wk), Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel.