The sun was gloriously setting over the awe-inspiring Table Mountain.
A sold-out Newlands was painted in blue and gold. The expectation was palpable in the air.
Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada to share the new ball against Joe Root and Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats. Up first was Boult. A slow clap ensues.
Only to be followed by a hush of silence as the teenaged Pretorius clips Boult into the Railway Stand with consummate ease.
As Cricinfo so delectably pointed out: “Pretorius simply helps himself to a big scoop of ice cream over deep midwicket!”
But now it was Rabada’s time. Or so everyone thought. Wait … not yet … It's Azmatullah Omarzai. Newlands groans in collective disappointment.
Even more so when Root strikingly reverse-ramps Omarzai into the stands followed by two further boundaries off consecutive deliveries.
Where is KG?
After a couple more boundaries off Boult, the ball is eventually tossed to Rabada for the start of the third over.
Wicket! First ball! Rabada strikes!
Root caught smartly down the leg-side by George Linde at short fine leg.
It may not be the finest ball of Rabada’s career but it has Newlands on its feet. The Blue and Gold army are in raptures.
What transpires the next 11 deliveries is a thing of beauty. There are few better moments in professional sport than watching high-performance athletes operating at their optimum levels.
Think Roger Federer in his pomp running down the baseline to deliver a backhand passing shot to save a match point against Rafael Nadal in a Wimbledon final. Or Lewis Hamilton’s impressive overtakes of Red Bull’s Mark Webber to secure his first Grand Prix win for Mercedes.
And now here at Newlands was one of the greatest fast bowlers of his generation in the midst of delivering a masterclass.
Each ball was inch perfect. Hard lengths interspersed with yorkers. Five dots in sequence to Sam Hain.
The first ball of Rabada’s follow-up over has Pretorius slicing it to third man. Again, Newlands rises in unison to applaud the great man. Rabada salutes the crowd with a raised fist in the air.
Another mixture of yorkers, bouncers and hard lengths sees Mitch van Buuren unable to get off the mark.
Rabada’s figures: 2-2-0-2. This is the stuff of dreams but for KG it was just another day at the office.
“I guess I was just trying to hit good lengths and trying to mix it up with either the yorker or the slow ball or the bouncer whenever I felt it was right to bowl it or if I didn't feel like it was right to bowl. So that's what I tried to do and it paid off,” Rabada explained.
But what is it like to be at the receiving end when scoring opportunities are as scarce as an oasis in the desert?
“He is quick!” Paarl Royals batter Hain said.
“I mean I’ve watched him on TV for years. The first few balls were on the money.
“As we all know KG is a special bowler.”
Rabada is undoubtedly the talisman of any team he plays for. His energy is infectious with his performances inspiring all around him. MI Cape Town teammate Reeza Hendricks certainly felt the momentum shift in the game after Rabada’s opening spell.
“Incredible! I mean, KG just turning up and doing KG things. It wasn't his best ball to start off with but he got a wicket, so we'll take that,” Hendricks said.
“It basically set the tone for us moving forward for the rest of those overs. We needed that partnership to be broken, and he did exactly that. And yeah, got the crowd going, got the boys going, and yeah, couldn't ask for a better start from KG.”
Educated at St Stithians in Johannesburg, Rabada’s fellow alumni stretches further than Durban’s Super Giants’ Wiaan Mulder, Paarl Royals teen fast bowling sensation Kwena Maphaka and MI Cape Town teammate Ryan Rickelton.
It also incidentally includes Academy Award-winning movie director Gavin Hood.
And if Hood was ever commissioned to script a blockbuster featuring Rabada in the lead role, there’s little doubt that he would look any further than Boult as the supporting act.
The “Blues Brothers” may not have been in perfect harmony on Monday night, but the potential is certainly there for these two great fast bowlers to light up the stage every time they get to perform together for the remainder of Betway SA20.
“Yeah, Trent Boult … having played against him for so many years, you always get nervous in the change room whenever he has the ball, especially the new ball,” Rabada said.
“We've seen him get wickets with his skills so it's nice to play with him and just to see how he goes about it and being in the same change room bouncing ideas off each other and just talking fast bowling and just getting to know him.
“I think it's pretty cool that I get to bowl with someone like that.”
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