Standing Tall
The only way to describe Temba Bavuma's innings is that it was a Graeme Smith-type of innings.
Wiaan Mulder leapt, punched the air and was halfway down the pitch as the ball reached the boundary. Mulder knew the moment Temba Bavuma's bat made with the ball that this was a good stroke. Bavuma held the pose as the ball raced to the boundary.
Evan Flint will probably argue that he knew that morning that it was going to be Bavuma's day. On the morning of day three, I had a chat with Flint discussing the Wanderers pitch. Flint is the Wanderers pitch curator. He felt Bavuma was due some runs. We laughed about the law of averages. Before we hung up, Flint repeated that Bavuma was due some runs, big runs.
After Bavuma reached the milestone, I resisted forwarding him a message I received from a colleague. Three words: He did it. Temba Bavuma didn't just do it. He did it in a big way.
There are hundreds, then Hundreds and finally big hundreds. Bavuma's maiden hundred was a hundred. It had significance in that he became the first black player to score a century for the Proteas. But, it did not help the Proteas to victory. The match was high-scoring and ended in a draw. Aiden Markram's century in the first Test against the West Indies was a Hundred. Capital letter H. It was a statement, a match-winning statement.
This is a big hundred, a daddy hundred. Daddy hundreds are gold. Second innings daddy hundreds are diamond. Temba Bavuma's 172 is the highest 2nd innings score for the Proteas since Hashim Amla's staggering 196 against Australia in Perth in 2012. It is the sixth-highest score for the Proteas in their second innings by a captain.
Temba Bavuma's career has never been just about cricket. There are always subplots. When he scored his maiden Test century, it wasn't just a century. Significance was attached to it, he was the first black player to score a century for the Proteas in Test cricket. When he was appointed captain of the white ball teams, he was the first black player to lead South African white ball teams. Bavuma is proud to be the first black player to do these things but feels too much fuss is made about it.
White ball captaincy turned out to be a millstone around his neck. He couldn't make cricketing decisions without non-cricket people telling him to go the other way. At the 2022 T20 World Cup, Bavuma tried to stand down from captaincy because he felt a player in better T20 form should be playing ahead of him. He was advised against it. It would look bad, he was told.
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His first act as Test captain was a pair of ducks. He faced three deliveries across two innings. It was an ignoble start to his tenure. His critics came out in full force. Bavuma has a lot of critics. Some of them are just haters who can't stand the sight of him playing international cricket. These ones blame him for everything.
This is despite Bavuma being the Proteas' best batter since the lockdown. Between then and January 2023, Bavuma averaged 45.33. No other Proteas batter averaged 35 or more in that period. Bavuma's shortcoming was not scoring a century - he scored seven fifties in 26 innings.
At 49 matches, he is third on the list of specialist batters with long spans between Test centuries. He is behind Adam Parore - 57 matches and Mark Boucher - 50 matches.
Since his maiden Test century, Bavuma made a Test career out of scoring gritty runs in high-leverage situations. But, gritty runs in high-leverage situations are not a measurable metric. You won't find that disclaimer on stat sheets or in record books.
Coming to the crease at eight for two is as high-leverage as it gets. The match looked nicely set up for another vintage Temba Bavuma fighting 60.
When he got into the 70s, the sparse crowd at the Wanderers began to applaud each run he made. It was one run less towards the elusive second ton. When Bavuma got to the upper 80s, my Twitter feed went quiet on Bavuma. No one wanted to be the one to jinx him. I don't believe a spectator or a commentator can jinx a player, but listening to Ian Bishop speak of how much he wanted Bavuma to reach the milestone even though it was against his team made me nervous.
Cricket is a sport riddled with superstition and it's just difficult to remain 100% immune 100% of the time. I am fairly certain that as Temba Bavuma passed the mid-70s, none of his teammates dared to move from their seats. As Bavuma inched forward to his ton, you could cut the atmosphere in the Proteas' dressing room with a knife. When Bavuma was on 98, they almost leapt up to celebrate, but the shot only got him a single.
When he was on 99, they collectively held their breath. They rose in unison as if they had choreographed this move for hours on end when Bavuma finally got his 100.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the ball sailed over cover on its way to the boundary. In Cape Town, Carl Lewis had asked his wife and daughter to sit with him when Bavuma was on 97. He knew this one was coming and he wanted to share the moment with his family. All three jumped in celebration as the ball raced to the fence. In India, Abhishek Mukherjee, the head of content for Wisden India, sat back with a smile on his face. First, he was relieved. Then he was overcome by elation.
He understood some of the criticism that Bavuma copped for some of his T20 performances. What he didn't get was the criticism of Temba Bavuma's form in the longer formats. Mukherjee couldn't stop smiling. I can imagine a few more spaces where people reacted like that to Bavuma's ton.
My Twitter feed came alive once more. SuperSport's IsiXhosa commentary team went wild. They were clapping, shouting and whistling. I could imagine a few more spaces where people had the same reaction. Like Temba Bavuma's father, a few people got emotional.
In his excitement for Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder screamed with joy as he ran over to embrace his captain. Then he checked himself. He slapped Bavuma on the back and took a step back to allow Bavuma a moment to let the moment sink in and perform the ritual of saluting the people rooting for him. Bavuma removed his helmet and raised his bat to the changeroom, to his father in the Long Room and his mother in the stands and then to every part of the ground.
All the while, Mulder was wearing a broad smile, pumping his fist in the air. He knew what the century meant for Bavuma, and he was the happiest person in the world for a split second. Temba Bavuma's century meant different things to a lot of people: vindication, Protea Fire, leadership, a moment of pride, hope - as he is named - and many other things.
It seemed that for Mulder, Bavuma's century presented a coming-of-age moment. By supporting his captain as he made his way to a second century, Mulder proved he could bat at this level. He was the perfect supporter. A maiden Test half-century was beckoning and he missed out by eight runs, but their 103-run partnership tilted the scales in favour of the Proteas.
Just delighted for Temba. A shame the crowd was so small.