Will Rabada be the English tamer again?

England have a much-vaunted batting line-up, capable of racking up giant scores, there is no doubt, but the last time Kagiso Rabada faced them, he tamed them with four wickets as they were reduced to 20 for six inside the first five overs of their ODI at Lord’s almost two years ago to the day.

It was the first time in ODI history that a team had lost six wickets inside the first five overs, and South African captain Faf du Plessis said he was looking forward to letting loose the Proteas’ fiercest bowling weapon in Thursday’s World Cup opener at The Oval.

“KG doesn’t really need any guidance, I just want to let him free. He’s a world-class athlete and people like him just want a stage on which to perform. This is the biggest stage in cricket so I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes,” Du Plessis said at The Oval.

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While Rabada is already a name whispered in hushed tones around the cricketing world, two other members of the attack, both 23 years old, have a wonderful opportunity to make a big name for themselves at this tournament.

Lungi Ngidi will make his bow against England and has taken the same number of wickets – 34 – in his 18 ODIs as Rabada did at the same stage of his superb career. While the English media are focusing on the absence of Dale Steyn, it may well be that Ngidi takes them by surprise.

“We expected Dale’s absence because he was only at about 60% when the squad was picked, so it was anticipated. When he’s fit, he will make the attack very strong, he has that x-factor and that was Plan A, but now we will reshuffle and it’s always important that someone steps up into the gap,” Du Plessis said, without sounding too concerned.

The other bowler for whom Du Plessis has high hopes is Andile Phehlukwayo, who has 54 wickets in his 42 ODIs, at a strike-rate of 31.50 (better than Rabada’s 31.80) and a tidy economy rate of just 5.62.

“Andile has stepped up for us in big games in the past. It looks like English conditions will be really flat and with his skill-set, his mix-ups and variations, I think he will play an important part. And he’s in-form as well,” Du Plessis said.

But while most people have acknowledged the strength of South Africa’s bowling, the batting does still have question marks hanging over it.

The Proteas have, however, breathed a mighty sigh of relief that Hashim Amla struck successive, classy half-centuries in the two warm-up games.

“Hash has not scored as many runs as he would have liked recently, but that’s in the past now. He definitely looked good in the two warm-ups, he was the Hash we know and he loves batting in England,” Du Plessis said.

With the first two names in South Africa’s team list settled, the remaining decision is who to bring in to replace Steyn – the strike bowling of Chris Morris appeared to be favoured on Wednesday. There has also been some speculation that Rassie van der Dussen, despite his outstanding record, might make way for the promise and a couple of overs of off-spin that Aiden Markram provides. That would be unlikely though.

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