A great many ills ail South African cricket but there is one area in which the nation is in rude health. The form and fortunes of the side may have fluctuated since their re-admittance to the Test game in 1992 but found always within the undulating terrain have been fast bowling riches, diamonds of seam and swing quarried out of the earth. Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock were followed by Makhaya Ntini, who carried the side through to Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander, the trio tessellating with complementary skills in the last South African Test team to conquer the world.
If another coronation is to come this weekend then a sparkling showing by the latest jewel in the South African crown will have had a major part to play. These can not have been straightforward weeks for Kagiso Rabada, dealing first with the speculation that filled a sudden and initially unexplained absence from the Indian Premier League and then the repairing of relationships required by the disclosure of a positive test for a recreational drug.
