Rabada gives kudos to team

Kagiso Rabada (above) says he is honoured to have received so many awards at the annual Cricket South Africa (CSA) awards in Sandton last Saturday, but insists all his Proteas team-mates contributed towards his success.

In what proved to be a magical evening for the 23-year-old, he won six awards including the South African Cricketer-of-theYear, SA Players’ Player-of-theYear, Test Cricketer-of-the- Year, Standard Bank ODI Cricketer of the Year and SA Fans Player-ofthe-Year. He also won the award for the Delivery-of-the-Year for when he dismissed David Warner in the third Sunfoil Test match against Australia at Newlands in March this year.

His six-star performance means he has now done it both in 2016 and 2018. No other cricketer has won more than five awards.

“I am grateful and honoured to have received these awards,” the young star said. “It means I’m doing something right.”

It has been a remarkable year for Rabada, who rose to No 1 bowling ranking in the world in Test cricket, cracking the 900-point barrier, and is the leading wicket-taker in 2018 with 38 dismissals at an average of 19.65. He is also ranked No 7 in ODI cricket and was named in the ICC Test XI for the 2017 calendar year.

“I think the whole team contributed,” Rabada said. “If you look at the Test matches, whenever we were in trouble there was always someone who bailed us out.”

Rabada’s on-field behaviour was a talking point after several run-ins with opposing batsmen. But he says he has learnt from what happened.

He is sidelined with a lower back stress reaction but says his rehabilitation is going well. – Own Correspondent