Eight wickets, 32 runs, 116 deliveries
Proteas seal victory as Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada have hapless Aussies wondering what hit them
Hobart — Eight wickets to take. More than a day to take them. And then, if needs be, a bit of batting. SA’s script for the past two days of the second Test against Australia at Bellerive Oval here seemed straightforward. Until, that is, Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada took all eight of those wickets for 32 runs on Tuesday. The last of them fell 95 minutes after the first, all crashing in the space of 116 deliveries. Abbott took 6/77, Rabada claimed 4/34, and SA dismissed Australia for 161 to win by an innings and 80 runs. A match deprived of its entire second day by rain was decided in not quite seven sessions of play, the last wicket falling half-an-hour before lunch. With that came the series — completing SA’s hat-trick of such triumphs in Australia and making them only the second team after the great West Indians, who reeled off three in a row between 1984 and 1992, to know this feeling. Tear up that straightforward script. Faf du Plessis’ immediate response to all that said it bet...
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