Kagiso Rabada claimed a cherished place on the Lord’s Honours Board with figures of 5-52 as England were dismissed for a modest total of 165 just an hour into the second day’s play of the first test on Thursday.
South Africa reached the interval on 27-0 with openers Dean Elgar (12*) and Sarel Erwee (13*) battling through a challenging 50 minutes to reach lunch trailing the home side by just 138 runs with all ten wickets in hand.
Captain Elgar was given out on seven, caught behind by ‘keeper Ben Foakes off Stuart Broad, but reviewed immediately with replays showing the ball clipped the top of his pad.
Proteas’ pace spearhead Rabada claimed three of the remaining four wickets after the home side resumed on 116-6 following an opening day curtailed to just 32 overs because of rain.
Rabada had Ollie Pope, 61 not out overnight, dropped by Erwee at first slip on 67 but the straightforward catch cost just six runs with Rabada finding an inside edge in his next over which cannoned onto the stumps dismissing Pope for 73 from 102 balls with five boundaries.
Broad (15) was comprehensively fooled by a Rabada slower ball which he slapped to Dean Elgar at backward point before Marco Jansen claimed the ninth wicket with an unplayable away swinger to left-hander Jack Leach (15) which pitched on middle stump and clipped the top of off.
Rabada’s dream of joining Allan Donald (twice), Makhaya Ntini and Vernon Philander on the bowling Honours Board came true immediately when his first delivery to number 11, Jimmy Anderson, was full, straight and too fast for the 40-year-old resulting in a straightforward lbw. His 5-52 was his 13th five-wicket haul in tests.
Jansen finished with 3-30 from his eight overs while Anrich Nortje bowled four overs at the start of the day which cost 20 runs to finish with 13-2-63-3.
ENGLAND: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (capt), Ben Foakes (wk), Matty Potts, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (capt), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi.