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India won’t roll over, South Africa must continue to work hard: Kagiso Rabada
South African cricket team pacer Kagiso Rabada was confident in his side’s chances of pulling off a victory in the first Test at Cape Town, but said the Indian cricket team won’t ‘roll over’ hence the home side will need to work hard.
South African cricket team pacer Kagiso Rabada said they were a little ahead of India going into the third day of the first Test in Newlands but they need to continue doing well in all departments to chalk up a win here.
“We will take it (the lead). At the end of the day we will take it. After the sort of momentum they got in the second session, we would take that lead. Obviously we were hoping for a bigger lead, but India are not going to roll over and we expected that. That is what they showed out there,” said Rabada at a press conference post end of play on Day 2.
Rabada said it wasn’t an easy pitch for batsmen as they need to graft rather than playing shots too soon. “You can’t just come in and just play shots everywhere. It’s almost like there’s a ball that will have your name on it. I think you need a little bit of luck.
“As you’ve seen Hardik Pandya got dropped, but he did play well. So I think it’s a wicket where you need a little bit of luck. You need to really grind,” he said, adding he was not ready to bat when he was asked to go out as nightwatchman.
“I actually had no shirt on in the change room, I was relaxing. I had baby powder on my feet. And then Faf came and asked me to do it, and I said ‘okay’ because I was the option. If the team needs me to do it, I’ll do it,” he said.
Asked about the kind of target South Africa are aiming right now in the second innings, Rabada said, “It is tough to say score right now. We are looking at bat time, looking to bat normally and see what happens from there. We want to make it hard for them to score.”
