Kagiso Rabada of the Jozi Stars during the Mzansi Super League match between Jozi Stars and Durban Heat at Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on November 30, 2018in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
Kagiso Rabada produced one of the most spectacular bowling performances of the Mzansi Super League thus far when he took three wickets in the first over of the Durban Heat run-chase to lead the Jozi Stars to victory at the Wanderers at the weekend – and then he made it all sound like it had almost happened by accident.
Hashim Amla was caught at slip off the third ball of the innings and then Rabada ended the over by dismissing Keshav Maharaj, caught at backward point, and Heinrich Klaasen, bowled through the gate by a thunderbolt, as the Durban Heat were dismissed for 177 to lose by 53 runs.
Rabada finished with a career-best four for 27.
“I haven’t felt at my best lately and I’ve been asking for advice in an effort to just find a way. Sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t, to get three wickets in an over means it was just my day,” Rabada said after the win, which had been set up by Reeza Hendricks’ superb 104 not out off 51 balls.
“But you’re not always going to feel your best and you just have to concentrate on the task at hand, especially after the team had batted very well. I didn’t feel anything special at the start of the over, I was just looking forward to a good performance.”
No sooner had Hendricks stroked the first century in Mzansi Super League history than Quinton de Kock slammed an even better 108 off 55 balls the next day to lift the Cape Town Blitz from 101 for eight to 172 for nine and victory by 60 runs over the Tshwane Spartans at SuperSport Park.
“It’s definitely up there with one of the best knocks I’ve played and I certainly didn’t expect it. The pitch played quite nicely and I was able to take full toll. I will definitely remember this innings for a long time,” De Kock said in Centurion after the Cape Town Blitz’s fifth win in seven matches.
Both Hendricks and Rabada then backed up their efforts with stellar displays yesterday in the Jozi Stars’ victory in Port Elizabeth over the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants.
Hendricks made it back-to-back hundreds as he hammered 108 not out off 62 balls to regain a share of the record for highest score, while Rabada took two for eight in four outstanding overs.
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