CS Chiwanza
It was a seam-up delivery, pitching back of a length and just outside off-stump. Dinesh Karthik’s eyes lit up, and the wicketkeeper tried to hoick the ball away to the on-side. Instead, he got an inside edge and it careened into middle and off stumps.
‘Bowled’ is Rabada’s favourite form of dismissal, and it was fitting that it was his final delivery and wicket for Delhi Capitals, back in IPL 2021. He went out with a bang because a few months later, faced with the option of retaining him or Anrich Nortje ahead of the mega-auction of 2022, the franchise he had played for since 2017 went with Nortje. Rabada had endured a below-par season, taking 15 wickets in 15 innings at an economy of 8.16. His average was 30.5, while his strike rate was 22.4.
His true stats showed that he had taken three wickets less and conceded 5 runs more than expected. These figures are fine for an average bowler, but not for an individual of Rabada’s calibre. The Capitals, confronted with the choice of retaining Rabada or Nortje, whose raw stats were 12 wickets in eight innings while conceding at a rate of 6.16 runs an over, averaging 15.6 and striking at 15.2, went with the latter. And Rabada went into the mega-auction.
**************************
In 2009, St Stithians College, Rabada’s school, was struggling to take the last wicket in a timed match. The captain tried different field settings, orthodox and funky, but that did not work. He tried different combinations of his first-choice bowlers, and again, none could dismiss the last batter. Eventually, he threw the ball to a 14-year-old Rabada whom he had done his best to overlook despite the youngster champing to get the cherry in his hand to wrap up the contest.
Rabada needed only a single delivery. His father would later recall it as the fastest delivery he had seen until that point. Many do not remember seeing the ball leave the teenager’s hand or pitch on the surface, but everyone has a memory of the off-stump cartwheeling. Kagiso Rabada had found a way to finish the match.
That is his mantra; find a way.
In 2019, Rabada was not fully fit and his rhythm was not where it was supposed to be, but with senior players retiring in numbers and others being forced to the sidelines by injury, South Africa needed him more than ever. He delivered 245.5 overs in Test cricket, 67.1 more than the next bowler, and still managed to have the third-best average and second-best strike rate compared to South Africa’s top 10 wicket-takers, a list he led. His economy was in the top five. Across formats, Rabada sent down a total of 412.1 overs for South Africa when no one else touched the 300-over mark
Ottis Gibson, then South Africa’s coach, would later confess that his star bowler was operating at 60% capacity. However, instead of begging for time off, Rabada found a way to keep going, even when he needed a break.
When he was around 16 and 17, Rabada featured for his school and the Gauteng Strikers. Their opposition challenged him regularly, but he also yearned to bowl to more accomplished batters. He couldn’t because he was still in school. One of his plans had been to face the Lions’ top order in the nets, but he couldn’t train and learn from the Lions bowlers because they had their sessions in the morning when he was attending classes.
As a workaround, Rabada hung around the Wanderers’ nets on weekends and during school holidays so much so that he was available to service South African and other international batters at all matches played at the stadium in those two years. He found a way to face and learn from the best.
************************
In one of his teachings on enlightenment, the Japanese Zen master Dōgen said, “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.”
A bowler’s path to mastery is the same, it goes from simplicity to complexity, and then back to simplicity.
When Rabada was 16 and playing for the Gauteng Under-19 team, his strength was in how he nailed the fundamentals. “He did the basics well, especially hitting the top of off-stump, and that separated him from other young bowlers. That ability put him on the same level as first-class players,” says Enoch Nkwe, Rabada’s then-coach at Gauteng Under-19.
After moving up to international cricket, Rabada was exposed to a wider world of bowling, one bigger than what he had been accustomed to. He found that there was so much to learn. Rabada has always been an inveterate student of the game. While playing for South Africa, he found himself in the company of greats and legends. He was like a kid in a candy shop; there were so many new things he could add to his arsenal.
The game was also changing, bowlers were trying to keep pace with the evolution of the game brought on by T20 cricket. Like any other bowler, Rabada expanded his arsenal. However, in 2022, aged 27, something changed. While everyone kept adding components to their bowling, diversifying their portfolio of deliveries, Rabada was going in the opposite direction. He simplified his game.
He found a way to restore his standing by embracing the fundamentals and leaning on his strengths. Over 70% of Rabada’s slower balls are leg-cutters, the same delivery he was bowling as a teenager. Only now, he has mastered it.
When he showed up for the Punjab Kings in 2022, he was a premier strike bowler again. He bagged 23 wickets in 13 innings while conceding at 8.46, averaging 17.7 and striking at 12.5. His dot-ball percentage was above 50 that season. His true stats show that he took 9.7 wickets more than expected.
In 2023, Rabada sent down 47% of the deliveries he bowled in 2022 and his wickets were also hovering close to the halfway mark of his previous season. He did not feature for Punjab until their fifth match, and appeared sporadically afterwards. He never got the opportunity to get in rhythm.
This year, the IPL has been a nightmare for bowlers. Flat pitches and small boundaries combined with the hitting might of unchained batters, unshackled by the impact sub, which provides a security net in the lineup. This is the highest-scoring season on the T20 circuit, with 34 scores of 200 or more and eight of them over 250. This year, the mean team total is 183. It is an insane runfest.
In this chaos, Rabada is going at an economy of 8.86 for an average of 33.8, while striking at 22.9. He’s gone at far fewer runs than expected. Punjab have been using him more in the powerplay, where he has been outstanding in keeping the league’s marauding openers in check. When compared to bowlers with 20 overs or more in the first six, the South African has the fourth-best economy.
He has also been effective in the middle overs, where he has been used sparingly. Here, he is conceding at a rate that’s in the top 10, ninth-best, when compared to bowlers who have sent down 10 or more overs.
However, most importantly, Rabada is taking wickets that matter. This season, he has bagged 11 wickets in 11 innings and those scalps are on par with his expected dismissals. Two of them came in April when Punjab went up against Rajasthan Royals. Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal were cruising when Sam Curran threw the ball to Rabada in the 11th over. A breakthrough needed to be manufactured, and Rabada obliged.
He took two wickets in two overs at the cost of six runs. He had found a way to keep his team in the contest by dismissing both set batters. After all, that is what he does: he finds a way.
