South Africa’s Rabada claims hat-trick on debut

Kagiso Rabada became only the second man in history to claim a hat-trick on debut as South Africa thrashed Bangladesh by eight wickets in a rain-hit first one-day worldwide in Dhaka on Friday. He achieved the fete in 2014 at Mirpur.

While the Indian cricket team was finding it very tough to go over the line against Zimbabwe, while England were trying to match Australia shot per shot in the Ashes and while Novak Djokovic didn’t disappoint his fans at Wimbledon semis, a 20-year-old from South Africa was rewriting the cricket record books.

Du Plessis finished with the top score of the day, 63 off 75 balls, while Rossouw reached 45 but the headlines all belonged to South Africa’s new pace hope Rabada.

The previous best for a first-timer in ODIs was 6/22 in 7 overs for Fidel Edwards of West Indies against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2003.

Mustafizur Rahman was Bangladesh’s best bowler in the first ODI and managed to keep the screws on South Africa.

All-rounder Mahmudullah, who was ruled out of the India series and the Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa with a finger injury, has been included after full recovery. Kagiso Rabada could not have wished for a better start to his ODI career as he wreaked havoc on Bangladesh with stunning figures of six for 16. Rossouw joined du Plessis and the pair then knuckled down, minimised risk and inched their way to the total, helping the side take a 1-0 lead in the series.

After De Kock had fallen to Nasir, the third-wicket pair eschewed risk to guide South Africa to a routine win – completed with 53 balls unused. All that had taken place with Bangladesh only a tenth of the way into their innings, which already felt over for everyone except Shakib. Explaining the decision, Proteas coach, Russell Domingo, said,”AB’s presence and contributions will be missed but we have a hectic playing schedule this season and we felt this would be a great opportunity to develop the next tier of batters during?this series, like we are doing with our bowlers”. BTV, the government-run TV network, is scheduled to broadcast the match, with a live online stream available at this link.