South Africa's Test squad is leaving Pakistan with shared spoils and the satisfaction that they have turned the corner when it comes to playing in the subcontinent. The Rawalpindi Test win was their third in four matches in Asia, after they beat Bangladesh 2-0 a year ago, a series that has been described by several players as the turning point for their 2023-2025 WTC campaign.
Before that series, South Africa had lost 10 out of 11 Tests in the subcontinent over a decade, across tours to India (2015 and 2019), Sri Lanka (2018) and Pakistan (2021). Now that they have ticked off a win against one of those opponents, it has given them the belief they have found a way to do it more regularly.
"This victory is definitely one of the highlights in my career," Kagiso Rabada, whose career-best 71 played a crucial role in the Pindi victory push, said at the post-match press conference. "Winning a Test match outside of Bangladesh in the subcontinent. I think that's pretty awesome. It definitely gives the guys a lot of confidence. Also, it's a pretty young team and a young team that wants to go out and do the dirty work."
Rabada operated almost as the solitary seamer across the two Tests, with Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen delivering 25 overs between them and the spinners doing the bulk of the work, and made his mark with his first Test half-century. His knock of 71 off 61 balls, which was part of a tenth-wicket stand of 98 with Senuran Muthusamy, came against the slow-scoring run of play and deflated Pakistan. It also earned Rabada a new bat, after a pact with David Bedingham.
"We have a thing where if I score 30 runs, he'll give me a bat because we are sponsored by the same batting company," Rabada said. "He said he thought his money was safe after the way I batted in the first Test. So that was just one way to get one up on him."
Coming off a pair in Lahore, Rabada pulled off a series of powerful shots down the ground including a six off Shaheen Shah Afridi. No other batter played with such chutzpah though Rabada said it was always part of South Africa's plan in tough conditions.
"We wanted to be aggressive in the way that we played, because if you just sit around waiting for a bad ball, you're probably going to get a good ball that gets you out," he said. "It was important that the batting unit could establish the shots that they wanted to play to put the opposition under pressure and that they start putting fielders back and then you can start rotating the strike."
That his bowling took a backseat despite excellent spells where he drew Abdullah Shafique's edge, in particular, several times without success didn't bother Rabada. "If you're a fast bowler and nothing's happening for you, it's about keeping the game quiet or finding a wicket here and there and applying pressure by slowing the rate down. It's about running and giving it your all," he said. "You can still create pressure for the spinners, so they do their job much better. It doesn't help if we are leaking everywhere and not necessarily bowling correctly. Not many rewards came my way, but I was more than happy to do the job that I did."
Rabada said the spin trio of Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer and Senuran Muthusamy was "world-class". "We came here with brilliant spinners and you saw the way that they performed. That was a really massive tick," Rabada said. "And the batters as well. Rickleton stepped up. He came into this Test series under pressure. Stubbs came into this Test series under pressure, played a crucial knock. Tony (de Zorzi) came into this series under pressure."
Rickelton had scores of 16 and 6 in the WTC final and only one half-century across 11 white-ball internationals in August and September. Stubbs had only got into double figures once in nine innings before his first-innings 76, and de Zorzi had lost his Test spot to Rickelton and is trying to find his way back. He was the only batter in the series to score a century.
South Africa ensured they still have not lost a series since the 2-0 defeat with a makeshift side in New Zealand last February and have won 10 of their last 12 Tests. "You have to be doing a lot of things right to get results like that," Rabada said. And South Africa will feel that they did.