“Do you want to be the guys who choke when your country needs you, or do you want to be the guys who actually get the job done when it’s all on the line?”
On the evening of December 28, 2024, South Africa coach Shruki Conrad wanted to, in his words, “chuck a grenade” into his side’s dressing room. With a place in the World Test Championship final at stake, the Proteas’ attempted chase of 148 against Pakistan was already fraying, Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs all dismissed with just 27 on the board. An hour into the final morning, it looked as if it had been blown to pieces, and that Conrad’s ploy had blown up in his face.
“I told him that I thought he’d made a mistake,” Temba Bavuma later told Wisden Cricket Monthly. “I looked around the room and I thought, ‘Shit, I don’t think this was the right time for that speech’.”
Mohammad Abbas, 34 years old and playing his first Test in three years, was bowling like a man who knew this could be his last chance. There was no wrenching the ball from his hand, and no erring from his metronomic line and length. South Africa were 99-8. The game was all but done. At which point, Kagiso Rabada entered and decided, if you can’t block them, smash them. In eight glorious overs, South Africa made the 49 runs they needed to win, 31 of them flowing in 26 balls from Rabada’s flashing blade. Brian Charles Rabada, they called him.
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One wonders whether both Conrad and Bavuma were thinking about that moment at stumps on day one at Lord’s. Just as at Centurion, South Africa had carved out a hard-won advantage, only to see it snatched from them in a spell before stumps. Just as at Centurion, there was no hope to be found in trying to blunt the attack. This Australia side is nothing but sharp edge, Mitchell Starc swinging out the gate, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins asking variations of the same brain teaser again and again. When they need a break, there’s Nathan Lyon, one of the greatest conventional finger-spinners of all time with a stock ball you just can’t hit.
For 22 overs that felt like 22 hours on the first day, South Africa had no answer. Aiden Markram, the most likely top-order counter-puncher, dragged on a booming inswinger in the first over. It was outswing that did for Rickelton, pushing and pouched in the slips. Sacrificial No.3 Wiaan Mulder managed six from 44 torturous balls before Cummins breached a half-hearted drive. Tristan Stubbs, a white-ball wonder with the game for Tests, had his defences breached. Bavuma walked off with three runs from 36 balls to his name, South Africa four down and thankful they had already avoided the follow-on. Get Bavuma early, and that would be the game done, was the feeling the next morning. His record and his combination of grit and flair suggested he might be capable of a riposte the rest would struggle to summon.
Just as at Centurion, with the margin for error reduced to nothing, attack proved to be the only answer. Bavuma drove his first ball without timing, and then flashed and missed at his second. His sixth was punched straight for two, and his seventh lofted into the covers for four. He had tripled his overnight score, and the shots kept coming. In the final over before drinks came the best of the lot, Cummins pulled gloriously into the Grand Stand. Bavuma’s first hour had reaped 33 from 43. South Africa’s flatlining innings had a heartbeat.
There were nervy moments, as there would have been had he chosen to block or leave every ball he faced. He edged Hazlewood and then was given lbw, reviewing reluctantly, even the TV umpire surprised when UltraEdge revealed a scratch. He was beaten twice in two balls in the same over as the six off Cummins. And it couldn’t last, Bavuma failing to add to his 36 at drinks as he smashed low and hard to cover’s left, where Marnus Labuschagne dived and took a sharp chance.
But he had driven the largest stand of the innings, and ensured that, however slim, South Africa’s first innings would end with them still alive, just. As the quicks set about Australia in the afternoon, every run secured first time around only grew in significance.
More than that, Bavuma had shown his side what could be possible for them too. If you let this Australia attack bowl at you, they can look invincible. Through a few punches back and you might just stand a chance. South Africa will begin their chase with a chance. Bavuma and the bowlers have shown they won’t be the guys to choke. If one or two more can stand up with them, history could be in their grasp.
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