South Africa made heavy work of a meager target of 101 set by Australia as they lost four wickets on their way to victory, leveling the four-match series at 1-1 in the second Test at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth on Monday.
Kagiso Rabada’s match figures of 11/150 ensured that the home side’s batsmen had no real mountain to climb as his six wickets in the visitors’ second innings restricted them to a total of 239-all out. His fiery spell on the fourth morning saw the match finish with more than a session remaining in its penultimate day.
The speedster’s man of the match performance was not without controversy though, as he has been charged twice for misconduct in the same match.
He first copped himself a charge for a Level 2 offence, the hearing of which was held on Sunday night. This was after a nudge on Aussie skipper, Steve Smith, while celebrating his wicket in the first innings.
Rabada got in trouble again for literally getting in the visitors’ vice captain, David Warner’s face right after dismissing him with a jaffer of a delivery for 13 in the second innings, en route to superb figures of 6/54.
The latter incident saw the 22-year old cop a charge for a Level 1 offence, making suspension for the next Test at Newlands almost a sure bet should he be found guilty.
In the hosts’ first dig, star batsman AB de Villiers scored an entertaining 126 off just 146 deliveries, his first ton in white clothing in over three years and his 22nd in total. This took the game away from the Aussies who began their second innings with a deficit of 139 runs.
The 34-year old top scored again for the hosts in the second innings with 28, coming in to bat after a shaky start which saw both openers back in the shed with just 32 runs on the board.
De Villiers and Amla (27) stabilised things, putting together a 49-run stand before being dismissed in successive overs. That was before Theunis de Bruyn contributed his 15 runs off just 14 balls to see the home side through to an important victory and House of jack no deposit bonus.
TOP IMAGE: The South African / AFP Photo / Marco Longari