Pace-bowling reserves, a wealth of big run-scorers, and a captain leading from the front all contributed to WTC final journey
Firdose Moonda06-Jan-2025Let’s start with some statistics: South Africa have won seven successive Test matches, the second-longest winning streak in their history. In this World Test Championship cycle, they’ve been victorious in eight out of 12 matches and since Shukri Conrad and Temba Bavuma took over as Test coach and captain respectively, they have won 10 out of 14 matches.It doesn’t matter who the opposition were, that is a mighty impressive list of numbers, especially for one player: Bavuma. He has captained South Africa nine times and not lost once. Is it time that he takes the credit for this cycle of success, which has included a clean sweep of the summer?”No, I’d never do that,” Bavuma joked afterwards. “Probably amongst the players I would, but not in the media. What I’ve always felt as captain, you’re only as good as your bowlers, firstly, but then you’re obviously as good as the rest of the team as well. And I think the bowlers individually have been superb.”At Newlands, Shan Masood identified South Africa’s pace pack as the “key difference” between the two sides, primarily because they were able to bowl quicker than Pakistan’s attack. On a flat deck, extra pace was one of the few ways that bowlers could create chances and Kwena Maphaka, Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen did.But that’s only one example of where having a varied and strong attack has put South Africa in a position of advantage. At SuperSport Park, the inclusion of Corbin Bosch worked as a charm, even as Pakistan batted poorly against him. At St George’s Park against Sri Lanka, a slower surface, Dane Paterson’s ability to nip the ball around came to the fore and in Durban, Jansen’s extra bounce and Sri Lanka’s hour of madness changed the course of the series.Kwena Maphaka’s first Test wicket got his team-mates rallying around him•AFP/Getty ImagesThough quicks are expected to do well in South African conditions, if you consider that South Africa have had six frontline options – Lungi Ngidi, Gerald Coetzee, Nandre Burger, Wiaan Mulder, Lizaad Williams and Anrich Nortje – unavailable for all or parts of the summer with injury, the extent to which the quality of the depth has been tested is clear. If Bavuma is only as good as his bowling resources, then he is exceptional, because that is what they are.It’s an accepted trope, especially in South Africa, that batters win moments and bowlers win matches, series and tournaments, and yet giving the credit to the attack is only half the job and Bavuma knows it. “The other guys as well, being the batters, they’ve also done their jobs when the time is needed.”In this cycle, South Africa have had 14 centuries by nine different players and five of them scored a hundred for the first time. The standouts are Ryan Rickelton, who became the first double-centurion in South Africa in eight years and as a South African opener in 12; Tristan Stubbs, who scored two hundreds after being given a role in the top-order, and Kyle Verreynne, who contributed three to the cause. And though Bavuma said “there’s nothing special about me as captain,” he should be on that list too.Related
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He has scored two hundreds in this cycle, and three as captain, a position he clearly thrives in. Since taking over the leadership, Bavuma averages 57.78. In the last two years, his conversation rate has significantly improved and there’s a reason for it. “I understand my game a lot better,” he said. “I’m trying to stay within my strengths as much as I can. I’m not trying to play like anyone else. In my early days, I was always being told, ‘you need to trigger’. I tried that but it was never natural for me. Now I’ve kind of put that aside.”That’s the technical explanation but there is also a more soulful one. “I’m probably at ease,” he added. “I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone else, just myself. I stay true to who I am and what my ambitions are and make sure I stay grounded. Like the guys always say, ‘don’t get too high, don’t get too low, just be yourself’. I’m a lot calmer about things as well. I don’t take them as personally. Maybe there’s a sense of me, in a good way, not caring as much.”Bavuma is now a decade into his international career and has finally been able to shed the many labels that have been attached to him. He was the first black African South African to score a century and has carried the hopes of a nation for so long that it was clear it had become a burden, especially when he was also tasked with leading their white-ball sides. For the first time Bavuma acknowledged his lowest point was the 2023 ODI World Cup (though some may point to the 2022 T20 World Cup). He was the only member of the top five who did not score a hundred, then played the semi-final with an injured hamstring, and has since said he felt he was “ridiculed and berated” for that.Ryan Rickelton, one of five first-time centurions in this WTC cycle, gets a hug from his captain Temba Bavuma•Gallo Images/Getty ImagesIn this cycle, Bavuma has played the home summer with heavily strapped elbows, has clearly not been able to extend fully on the pull shot and has still racked up the runs while captaining in a way that Verreynne, in a Cricket South Africa Instagram post, described as “being the backbone of this team.” But Bavuma believes in the vertebrae that form the spine.”I have not been taking on too much responsibility,” he said. “I’ve been identifying guys within the team who can take care of certain things. A guy like Aiden (Markram), he does that quite well. And guys lean to him a lot easier than they would to me. If you think about the bowling, there’s Keshav and KG, they kind of take care of that. And then the batting, there’s Ashwell (Prince, batting coach) in this space. For me, it’s to manage everything. I don’t feel as much pressure as I did at the beginning. I’m a lot calmer and don’t take things as seriously and as personally.”He also credited the coaching staff, under Conrad, for allowing the players the “freedom to be themselves”, which is clearly paying off. Conrad believes in characters, not calculations and so all those numbers we listed up top will never tell the full story of how South Africa got to the WTC final. They did it with some luck, a heap of a belief and a unit that stuck together.And for the next few months they can say: See you at Lord’s.
