England Vs South Africa 1st Test: Kagiso Rabada Suspended For Second Test

South Africa have suffered a huge blow with their pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada getting suspended for the second Test against England after he was found guilty of using ‘inappropriate language’ towards England batsman Ben Stokes during the ongoing first Test at Lord’s.

The right-arm pacer, who already had three demerit points that he picked for an altercation with Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella during an one-day international earlier this year, picked another point for giving Stokes a sendoff on the first day of the Test. He was also docked of 15 percent of his match fee for the incident. A total of four demerit points means Rabada is automatically suspended for one game and the news was confirmed by ICC on Friday (July 7).

“During the opening day’s play in the Lord’s Test against England on Thursday, Rabada was found guilty of breaching article 2.1.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Player and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batsman upon his/her dismissal during an International Match,” the ICC release stated.

“Thursday’s incident related to Rabada using inappropriate language after dismissing England batsman Ben Stokes, which were audible over the stump microphones and also resulted in the batsman to turn before walking off the field,” the release added.

South Africa, meanwhile, ended the day two on 214 for five, still trailing England’s first-innings total by 244 runs.  Temba Bevuma (48) and Rabada (9) will resume the proceedings with the bat on day three. The Proteas were reeling at 104 for 4 before being rescued by a 99-run partnership between Theunis de Bruyn (48) and Bevuma.

Earlier in the day, half-centuries from Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad had propelled England to 458 after Morne Morkel dismissed Joe Root (190) and Liam Dawson inside three balls in only the third over of the day. Ali scored 87 before becoming Rabada’s second scalp while Broad remained unbeaten on 57 off just 47 balls.