South African pace bowler Kagiso Rabada named his team’s World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 win over Australia “a moment he will never forget”. Rabada, who claimed a five-wicket haul in the first innings and nine wickets overall in the match at the Lord’s, surpassed Allan Donald to become the fourth-highest wicket-taker for South Africa in Test cricket at a strike rate of 38.9. This is also the highest for any bowler with more than 150 scalps to his name as well.
“I don’t see myself as a star,” Kagiso Rabada told the ICC. “I see myself as someone willing to work, give my blood for this team and continue working hard and improving. That’s me as a cricketer, always wanting to improve and playing for the badge with a lot of pride. That’s the way I’d like to see everyone play.”
“Every game I play, I’m looking to get wickets. I’m not going to go into the game thinking ‘I need to get seven wickets for us to win’, I look at it as an opportunity to get as many wickets as I can to help the team. In saying that, I know I won’t do it alone and I back all the players in the team. You are playing for South Africa for a reason, it’s not by chance. We are a fairly inexperienced team who got put together about a year ago, we have not been with each other for a long time, and we have gone on and produced this. I’ll never forget this in my life, none of the boys will forget this,” he further added.
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On the opening day, he dismissed Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the same over. His heroics of 5 for 51 saw him become just the second player in the history to get his name etched on the Lord’s honours board in both the home and away dressing rooms as well. Rabada then followed it up with a 4 for 59 in the second innings – incidentally dismissing Khawaja and Green in the same over once again in the game as well.
“I’ve been working extremely hard, those second innings spells are the ones that count a lot more – when you are a bit tired and behind in the game,” the 30-year-old said. “It was just about staying calm and looking at what was in front of us. All mayhem broke loose, we got five wickets in I don’t know how many overs, it was a crazy game of cricket. There are normally two voices in your head – one that doubts and one that believes. That is the one we keep feeding, especially in big moments like this, the World Test Championship Final. That is why you saw the performances you saw. It is testament to our team this season,” he stated.
“Australia are a well accustomed team and with all due respect, a bit of an ageing team. Some of those guys were playing when we were still in high school. If you put into perspective for the younger players what that’s like. It is special, it hasn’t sunk in. This has given us confidence we can do it again,” Kagiso Rabada concluded.
