Kagiso Rabada rips England apart as South Africa beat England on final day

South Africa beat England by 280 runs in the 4^th Test of their series at SuperSport Park, Centurion. Despite the loss, England won the series 2-1.

Overnight, England were 52/3 and needed 330 runs for an improbable victory after losing their top three batsmen in their second innings inside the first 10 overs as Alex Hales, Alastair Cook, and Nick Compton all departed without reaching double figures.

Joe Root and James Taylor, both on 19, were at the crease at the start of the day but they failed to score big. Root got out early to spinner Dane Piedt and Taylor followed almost immediately as he was caught behind by Quinton de Kock. None of the English batsmen were able to handle the South African bowlers as wickets kept falling at regular intervals.

Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, and Moeen Ali failed to convert their starts and didn’t cause any concern to South Africa’s hopes for a win. England’s lower-middle order were all at sea against young Kagiso Rabada, who was unstoppable with the highest scorer being James Taylor, who scored 24.

The visitors added only 49 runs to their overnight score as they lost the fourth Test by a mammoth 280 runs.

Rabada finished the innings with figures of 6/32 in 10.4 overs as the visitors were bowled out for just 101. The 20-year-old was clearly the star performer for the Proteas and rightly named the Man of the Match.

The leader of South African bowling Morne Morkel picked up three important wickets to support Rabada. Dane Piedt also chipped in with a wicket.

Earlier in the series, South Africa had already conceded their second consecutive series loss after going 2-0 down at Johannesburg. Not only that, the Proteas captain Hashim Amla had resigned from his captaincy position after the previous Test at Cape Town.

Ben Stokes of England won the Man of the Series award.

Brief Scores – SA 475 all out, 248/5 decl. beat ENG 342 all out, 101 all out (Taylor 24, Root 20; Rabada 6/32, Morkel 3/36)