South Africa booked their place in the final of the World Test Championship with a two-wicket win.
South African tailbacks Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen held out against tireless fast bowler Mohammad Abbas with a thrilling two-wicket win in the first Test at Centurion, securing the Proteas’ place in next year’s World Test Championship (WTC) final .
Jansen (16 not out) surpassed Abbas’s brilliant tally of 6-54 on Sunday with a commanding lead against the fast bowler as South Africa reached 150-8 shortly after lunch on Day 4 to claim a narrow victory in the opening match series .
“Quite an emotional moment for me, a good advertisement for Test cricket,” said South Africa captain Temba Bavuma, who scored 40 points.
“We weren’t reckless, but we found a way to make sure the result was on our side. Lots of joy and luck on our side, kind of a roller coaster ride, glad we were able to get the result.”
Before lunch, Abbas, making a comeback after more than three years in the Test wilderness, had thrown back South Africa’s tricky 148-run chase in a marathon 13 overs as the home side limped to 99-8, losing four wickets for three runs .
However, Rabada switched gears in an unbroken 51-run stand with Jansen, scoring an unbeaten 31 from 26 balls with five fours to seal a memorable win and deny Pakistan their first Test win in South Africa in almost 18 years.
South Africa had started this WTC cycle with a 1-1 draw against India before being defeated 0-2 in New Zealand. But since then the Proteas have beaten the West Indies, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to remain at the top of the table.
“It (the WTC final) is a big event, not only for me but also for the team and the coach,” Bavuma said. “The way we started our campaign against India and then against New Zealand with a team that wasn’t quite as strong and the way we performed didn’t give us many chances.”
India, Australia and Sri Lanka are the other teams still in contention for June’s WTC final against South Africa at Lord’s.
Captain Temba Bavuma (40) and Aiden Markram (37) had thwarted Abbas for an hour after South Africa regained the lead with a shaky 27-3 and still needed 121 for victory.
Bavuma’s controversial sending off sparked a South African collapse in the second half of the first training session, with Abbas grabbing three of his six balls, sparking a sensational collapse for the home side.
Surprisingly, Bavuma did not call for a TV review when replays suggested that Abbas’ ball had touched the batsman’s pocket and made no contact with the inside edge of the bat, and the South African captain went back to the dressing room.
Abbas bowled an unaltered marathon 13 overs but had to wait while Markram and Bavuma fended off eight overs from the fast bowlers.
With the score at 27-3, Bavuma and Markram showed plenty of patience against Abbas’ probing line and length before the fast bowler finally made the breakthrough after the first drinks break.
Abbas was rewarded for his brilliant seam bowling as he hit the outside edge of Markram’s bat and hit the off-stump.
Bavuma survived a couple of close chances as he successfully turned around an LBW decision on the pitch against him earlier in the day and Naseem Shah failed to hold on to a sharp catch at fine leg as he went beyond the boundary line with the ball going over his head snapped.
South Africa had controlled the game at 96-4 before Bavuma’s dismissal resulted in Abbas finding the outside edges of David Bedingham’s (14) and Corbin Bosch’s (0) bats on successive tosses, in between pulling Kyle Verreynne Naseem Shah’s throw back onto his stumps.
Abbas found the outside edge of Rabada’s bat in his first over after lunch, which narrowly missed wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, before both finalists took the team home.
“We are extremely proud of the effort but we have to be ruthless in the future,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood said. “We keep making the same mistakes, but we have to get over the limit and take advantage of moments.”
The second test begins on Friday in Cape Town.
