Moments after South Africa’s historic ICC World Test Championship win, pacer Kagiso Rabada said the claims that his team did not face ‘strong opposition’ en route to the final was ‘rubbish’.
His views were echoed by captain Temba Bavuma, who said ‘There were doubters on the route we took, this win squashes that’. Bavuma, on an emotional note, added that he hoped South Africa’s first ICC title across formats would ‘unite’ the nation, ‘divided as we are’.
South Africa beat Australia by five wickets at Lord’s on Saturday to win the championship. However, critics questioned their place in the final, claiming they had played only 11 Tests in the two-year cycle while England (22), India (18) and Australia (16) had played more. The fact that they entered the final on the back of wins against Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the West Indies — the teams placed in the lower half of the table — further triggered the debate about whether they were worthy enough to be in the final while putting the WTC format under scrutiny.
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Rabada dismissed the critics. Speaking after Saturday’s win, he said: Can’t describe in words how I feel. Extremely happy, we’ve planned well and worked hard. We deserve to be here. People said we haven’t faced strong opposition, which is rubbish. We beat Australia this time, had to be on our A game.”
Bavuma said that despite the ‘doubters’, his team came into the match with a lot of ‘belief’. “We prepared hard, we came in with a lot of belief and a lot of doubters, glad we played well. Special moment for us and people back home, probably will sink in in a couple of days,” the captain, who scored 66 in the second innings, said.
He added that after ‘getting to the doorstep consistently and experiencing heartache, the sun’s been with us’. “We got ourselves into the final, there were doubters on the route we took, but this win squashes that. Here’s an opportunity for us as a nation, divided as we are, to unite. You can be rest assured we’ll celebrate as one.”
