Rabada defends Proteas decision-making, backs battling batsmen

Despite cloudy, seamer-friendly conditions greeting the Proteas at the start of Thursday’s first day of the second Test at Old Trafford, captain Dean Elgar opted to bat first rather than stick to the decision to bowl, which had served them so well at Lord’s.

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The decision immediately backfired as the Proteas lost five wickets before lunch, and were ultimately dismissed for just 151, with a shortened batting lineup having also been exposed after all-rounder Marco Jansen was dropped for Simon Harmer.

By stumps England had recovered to 111/3, a deficit of 40 runs, with all signs suggesting England could now go on to level the series.

South Africa captain Dean Elgar seemingly thought it was a calculated risk to bat first, citing the fact that the pitch looked dry, and hopefully would suit their two spinners later in the game.

The decision-making, as well as the continued struggles of batsmen Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen, led to a severe backlash from critics. However, Kagiso Rabada called for perspective to be applied.

“Generally, if you’re playing two spinners, you want to bat first,” said Rabada, as quoted by Sport24. “As you saw, the wicket is becoming drier by the minute. It’s quite slow. You saw Simon was in the game with his second ball already. We’re playing two spinners for a reason. It’s quite dry out there, it is what it is.”

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Ironically, Rabada top-scored from No 8 with a well-played 36, and he defended the batsmen who had struggled before him.

“Our batters know what they have to do, none of them are getting out on purpose,” said Rabada. “There’s quality in our lineup, but it’s a young one. It’s about gaining experience, they know what they’ve done wrong. As a team, we’re backing every player to do his best. If it doesn’t come off, it is what it is and you carry on.

“I can assure you they are taking responsibility. They’ll try their utmost best [to atone in the second innings]. You can’t go pointing fingers, it’s energy-sapping. The past is past, we have to look forward and apply ourselves better.”

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ENGLAND V PROTEAS

Key battle

Jonny Bairstow’s tremendous home summer across all three formats took a hit in the previous match when he registered scores of just 0 and 18. He was dismissed in both innings by South African bowler Anrich Nortje, who now has claimed Bairstow’s wicket three times from 16 balls in Test cricket at an average of 5.00. Nortje has collected 14 wickets from his last five Tests at a cost of just 16.57 runs.

Stat attack

– The average first innings score from the last ten Tests in Manchester is 409, climbing to 451 for the six teams that won batting first in that time.

– James Anderson has dismissed the South African opener Dean Elgar five times in Test matches, the most by any pace bowler.

– When excluding his career-high 267, Zak Crawley averages just 20.94 in Test cricket.

– Anrich Nortje took the wicket of Ben Foakes twice in the last match from 15 deliveries for five runs conceded.

– Keshav Maharaj has claimed 16 wickets from his last four Test innings at a cost of just 10.25 runs apiece.

– The 11 sixes registered by Ben Stokes in his monumental innings of 258 against South Africa in Cape Town 2016 was the joint-second most sixes scored in a Test innings.

– 89 Test match runs is all the Proteas’ captain Dean Elgar requires to become the eighth South African to reach the 5,000 run milestone. However, he has not recorded more than 77 runs in any of his last 12 Tests.