Bavuma's nine-hour 179 sets up South Africa-Australia series decider at Newlands
Temba Bavuma has produced the defining innings of his captaincy, batting for more than nine hours for a career-best 179 to power South Africa to an innings-and-31-run victory over Australia and force a deciding third Test at Newlands, starting on Tuesday.
The scale of the rescue act was stark. South Africa were 12/2 when their captain walked to the crease, and later slumped to 110/6. Bavuma was still there when the home side declared on 425/9, having been caught behind off Mitchell Starc.
He found company at the other end when it mattered, sharing stands of 52 with Ryan Rickelton, 132 with Marco Jansen and 183 with Simon Harmer. The blunt truth of the match, though, was that without him South Africa would not have won — never mind by as big a margin. Without him, they would not be heading to Cape Town to play a decider; at best they would have been trying to level the series, at worst it would have already been lost with a match to spare.
'Not another game of cricket'
Bavuma was candid about the stakes ahead of the Newlands clash, which will settle the series.
"It's definitely not another game of cricket,"
he told a press conference on Monday, before turning to the wider picture of a contest that has swung back and forth.
"[The series] has been exciting. It shows that there's a fine line between winning and losing when two top teams come together. I'd like to believe and feel that we are speaking to the tag that comes with us being [WTC] champions."
The reference to the World Test Championship is not idle. Bavuma was an important factor in South Africa's five-wicket win over Australia in the WTC final at Lord's in June last year, when his 66 in the second innings — injured hamstring and all — made that triumph considerably easier to achieve than it might otherwise have been.
The numbers behind the resurgence
The recent record backs up the sense of a batter who has found something durable. In his last 16 Test innings, Bavuma has passed 50 eight times and gone on to three centuries. Since he took over as South Africa's captain in February 2023, he has scored four of his five Test hundreds and averages 51.68.
His form has also changed the way he is received. Arriving at Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in Gqeberha for the flight to Cape Town, Bavuma could hardly take three steps without being stopped for a photograph — a scenario that bears little resemblance to December 10, 2024, when he passed through the same departure lounge unnoticed after South Africa's 109-run win over Sri Lanka at St George's Park.
On that occasion Bavuma scored 78 and 66, but the headlines belonged to Ryan Rickelton and Kyle Verreynne for their centuries and to Dane Paterson and Keshav Maharaj for their five-wicket hauls, leaving him free to devote his attention to his one-year-old son. Now, sharing a flight with Australia's sizable travelling support, he obliges enthusiastically.
South Africa's squad and the Australian fans are booked onto the same plane to Cape Town, and Australian supporters — especially those who travel — have a reputation for fair-mindedness, with several of those requesting smiley selfies coming from the other side of the globe.
For Bavuma, the bigger test begins at Newlands on Tuesday, where a series that could have slipped away entirely now hinges on a single match.