It was the ninth over of a damp first morning in Gqeberha when Temba Bavuma walked out. South Africa were 12 for 2. Aiden Markram had just been bowled by Scott Boland, and David Bedingham had gone to the very next ball. Boland was on a hat-trick. South Africa were already 1–0 down in the series, beaten by 214 runs in Durban.
It did not get better quickly. Marques Ackerman was out in the 15th over. Matthew Breetzke followed in the 22nd. At 40 for 4, the series was slipping away, and the man left to hold it together was the captain.
“I’m obviously not a big guy,” Bavuma said this week, talking about his technique. “I’m not really going to get any big strides in.” So he does not try to. He moves only as much as he has to, and he waits.
He waited with Ryan Rickelton, who made 31 of their 52 together. He waited while Wiaan Mulder came and went. When the sixth wicket fell at 110, in the 50th over, Bavuma had been at the crease for more than 40 overs and had 43 runs to show for it. Rain came and went. The innings stretched across three days.
Ask him how it felt, and the answer is not what you expect from a career-best. “I never really felt in,” he said afterwards. “Every now and then, a ball would jump off a length or nip around.” His plan was simple: “I was always trying to be as tight as I could and trying to hit the ball as straight as I could.”
Then Marco Jansen arrived and hit the ball very hard, 85 off 100 balls, and Bavuma let him. They added 132. Then came Simon Harmer, an off-spinner by trade, who made 82, and the two of them added 183, a South African record for the eighth wicket. Steve Smith dropped Bavuma at slip on 122, a low chance that Australia would rue.
By now the hours of patience were paying off. With Harmer, Bavuma scored 91 off 120 balls, against bowlers who had been out in the field since Sunday. Pat Cummins bowled 26 overs and did not take a wicket. When Mitchell Starc finally found the edge, Bavuma had faced 334 balls for 179, the highest score of his Test career and the highest by a South Africa captain against Australia. South Africa declared on the spot.
“Credit where it’s due,” said Starc. “(Temba) played well.” Bavuma’s own verdict, as he walked off, was shorter: “Definitely one of my better ones.”
The tired bowlers then had to bat. Australia were bowled out for 99, with Marco Jansen taking 5 for 33. Their whole innings lasted 255 balls, 79 fewer than Bavuma had faced on his own. Made to follow on, they were 41 for 1 in their second innings, still 285 behind, at the time of writing.
It was hard not to think of a much smaller ground. A week earlier, at our Test carnival at MCC2 Ajman, SPSA B ended their first day on 73 for 5. The next day, Vyan Puthran made 45 off 89 balls and Ishaan Sayal 20 off 51, and the two of them put on 50 off 77 balls. The innings survived. Nobody wrote a match report for the ages. It was the same kind of batting all the same.
Most of us imagine that a great innings feels great while you are playing it. Bavuma’s felt, by his own account, like 334 balls of never quite being in. He batted anyway. That may be the most useful thing a young cricketer can learn from Gqeberha.
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