Bavuma hits career-best 179 as South Africa declare 425 for 9 to put Australia on back foot in Gqeberha

Bavuma’s captain’s innings flips Test after early collapse

In the first Test in Durban, it was Australia’s lower order hanging in with one established batter that first frustrated, then demoralised South Africa. In the second, on the third day in Gqeberha, South Africa returned the favour.

Temba Bavuma played the role of Matthew Renshaw, assembling a near-flawless 179 from 338 balls and 547 minutes, combining with Marco Jansen’s 85 and Simon Harmer’s 82 to take the hosts to a declaration at 425 for 9. Australia then lost one wicket for three in reply.

Eight years on from being stranded on 95 not out at Johannesburg in the aftermath of sandpaper week, Bavuma delivered the innings that had eluded him. The 179 was not just his biggest score but comfortably his best. He entered the fray at 12 for 2, saw a slump to 40 for 4, and batted in patches across two cloudy, damp, difficult, abbreviated days, starting the third with 41 to his name.

Partnerships rebuild from 97 for 5

South Africa began Day 3 in a precarious position of 97/5 and stuttered further at 110/6. Two exceptional backs-to-the-wall partnerships, both helmed by the South African captain, took them past safety and into a position of strength.

Bavuma, who later admitted it was still a tough pitch to bat on, played a big role in keeping the Aussies on the park for nearly the entire day. He watched on mostly as Jansen made quick runs in their alliance worth 132 off 185 deliveries.

Jansen’s approach will always fail more than succeed, but when it works, it’s a spectacle. Shades of Mitchell Johnson in 2009, a left-handed fast bowler destroying pull shots over midwicket and rifling straight hits from a high backlift, as he took on the opposing quicks from the jump. He had moments of fortune: slicing through the cordon, sixes over fielders’ heads, nicking balls past leg stump. But others rocketed to the fence, reaching 50 from 43 balls.

There he slowed, and batted past lunch to take his stand with Bavuma to 132, both eyeing hundreds before Boland got the new ball. The first delivery with it smashed Jansen in the box with such force that a long break was needed. Two balls later, focus blown, he flicked aerially to be caught at midwicket, giving Boland five wickets from his first use of South African soil.

Scott Boland was suffocatingly accurate, while Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc bowled vicious bouncers in between threatening stumps and edge. Bavuma was immovable. His discipline in not reaching for width was monastic. When he did choose aggression, with the on drive or the square punch, he chose exactly the right ball.

Australia were hampered by Josh Hazlewood being banned from bowling for the first session having been off the field ill the previous day. Hazlewood’s absence didn’t seem a problem when Starc bounced out Wiaan Mulder early, South Africa six down when a smart review picked up a flick of glove.

Bavuma survived nervy running to reach 99, then the telling blow against Cummins was rich in symbolism: no dinked single, no dusty dive, but a rasping pull with full control along the ground for four, imperious in dismissing the threat of the opposing captain.

On he went, no heaves, no artillery, only five boundaries between 100 and 150, all of those using grass instead of air as their conduit. Harmer, with a couple of first-class hundreds and the use of a sun-baked pitch, rode shotgun, opening out after reaching fifty. The dam broke.

Simon Harmer batted for longer - 277 balls - in Bavuma’s company during which the latter got to his 100 and 150 to a rousing applause from the dressing room. Harmer was astute in his footwork and calculated with his shots too, moving along to a half-century without breaking too much sweat. He batted 157 balls, but he too fell agonisingly short of a first Test century - departing for 82, bowled by Marnus Labuschagne off a slog.

Declaration and early Aussie wobble

South Africa went past the 390 of Renshaw’s rescue, then past 400, a partnership of 183 by the time Harmer missed a slog. Bavuma followed next ball, nicking Starc, prompting the captain to declare as he left the field.

Brief scores: South Africa 425/9 decl. (Temba Bavuma 179, Marco Jansen 85, Simon Harmer 82; Scott Boland 5-81, Mitchell Starc 3-89) lead Australia 3/1 (Kagigo Rabada 1-0) by 422 runs.

Kagiso Rabada, who’d just walked out after Harmer’s dismissal, had to rush back and return to bowl the first over. But the champion bowler that he is - a Rolls Royce, per Shukri Conrad, he dismissed Nic Maddinson for a duck on the fourth ball of the innings. Maddinson, Australia’s controversially selected opener, edged Rabada to slip for a second first-innings duck.

Having led with the ball, Boland was now pressed into nightwatch service, but bad light kept play to three overs of spin before the call of stumps. Australia closed out the day on 4/1, staring at a mountain of runs that looked unlikely at the start of the day.

Remarkably, from 40 for 4, South Africa are now a team that can’t lose this Test. Australia’s batting on day four will decide whether they can say the same.