Rabada racks up awards
KAGISO Rabada scooped a record six prizes at Cricket South Africa’s annual awards ceremony last night, recognition for a year in which the 21-year-old rose to superstardom amid mediocre performances from the Proteas.
Rabada was named Cricketer of the Year at a glittering show in Sandton last night. He is the youngest recipient of the crown.
He also scooped the coveted Players’ Player of the Year – a much-valued award as it is voted for by his fellow professionals – the Test and ODI (one-day international) Player of the Year, the fans’ favourite player award and the Delivery of the Season award for his bruising dismissal of England opener Jason Roy with a 146km/h yorker during a T20 international at the Wanderers in February.
The six awards saw him eclipse the previous record haul of five, shared by AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, two-time winners of the Cricket of the Year prize.
Rabada had an outstanding season last summer in which he claimed a hat-trick on his ODI debut against Bangladesh and in the same match went on to record figures of 6/16 – a then South African record for a bowler in ODIs.
In what was arguably the best performance of his career, Rabada claimed match figures of 13/144 in the final Test against England in January, the second best Test match bowling figures by a South African after Makhaya Ntini. That performance helped set up SA’s only Test win in the last 12 months.