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That's All Secondary: Kagiso Rabada On Going Past Legendary Allan Donald
Follow UsRabada brushed aside the achievement, revealing that his primary goal is something else
Kagiso Rabada, who was spitting fire on the Lord’s wicket on Day 1 of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2025 against Australia, accounted for five wickets and got on the Lord’s honours board.
On his way to the five-wicket haul, just the second such instance by any bowler in WTC Finals history, behind New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson, Rabada also took over from the legendary Allan Donald as the fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests for South Africa.
However, the 30-year-old brushed aside the achievement as secondary, saying his primary goal is to keep running and doing the job for the team.
“That’s all secondary. The primary is to keep running and doing the job,” Rabada said in the end-of-the-day press conference in London. However, he was quick to pay respect to Donald. “Means a lot to get past Allan Donald. What a legend,” he added.
Rabada, who now has 332 wickets in only his 71st match, is only behind Dale Steyn (439), Shaun Pollock (421) and Makhaya Ntini (390) amongst the South African bowlers with most wickets in the format. Donald finished with 330 wickets in 72 Tests.
Praising the fans for their support in the final, Rabada said that he always had a feeling of doing well in the overcast conditions at Lord’s.
“Coming here about a week ago, I could already feel the atmosphere. Great to see the support for us. Feels like a home game. It means a lot to play for South Africa. Given my all each and every time. Happy to do the job,” he said.
Talking about his strategy against the Aussies where he took the big wickets of Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, Beau Webster along with those of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, Rabada said it was only a matter of time as each ball seemed to have the name of the batter written on it.
“It was moving around a bit. With the new ball, it seemed harder to score. As the ball got softer, and they showed intent, they got some runs away. But you always felt that, on this wicket, especially with the way they were playing, any ball had their name on it,” he said.