South Africa’s big three stood tall, breaking the Proteas' ICC tournament curse against Australia

The Proteas have finally ascended the mountain of past missed opportunities to now sit on the throne of world cricket after beating reigning champions Australia by five wickets in the World Test Championship (WTC) final on day four at Lord’s in England.

After losing two quarterfinals, 12 semifinals and one final in International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments since 1992, hope had started slipping from the hearts of South African cricket supporters.

Temba means hope

Overnight on day three of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between South Africa and Australia, the Proteas needed a mere 69 runs to clinch their first major global ICC trophy, with eight wickets in hand and their two best batters settled at the crease.

Yet, despite the clear advantage, no one who cares about the success of the Proteas felt at ease heading into day four.

The anxiety was palpable from the large South African contingency in vocal support at Lord’s — cheering every run, whether edged or out of the middle, like the game was won — to the tentative batters unable to find their rhythm.

Player of the match Aiden Markram, whose heroic 136 off 207 deliveries led the run chase, admitted after the match that he barely slept the previous evening — nerves trumping a sleeping tablet.

But as much as SA stuttered on day four, losing three wickets while scampering to the last few runs (it should have been four after Kyle Verreynne gloved the ball behind and wasn’t given out), their hope didn’t falter.

“We recognise that the sun shines on us, and we have the responsibility of doing something that has never been done before,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said at the post-match press conference.

“I heard it’s 26 or 27 years, something like that... (since SA’s last ICC trophy, when they claimed the Champions Trophy in 1998. But it’s not a World Championship event.) So, to be a part of that history is massive in a lot of ways.

“And we hope that this is the start of something. There could be more trophies.”

Kagiso means peace

If SA were to break their duck of major, global trophies, they needed their best players to stand up on the biggest occasion.

First it was Kagiso Rabada with the ball, who got his name on the Lord’s honour’s board for a second time. His first innings five-wicket haul, under the English clouds initially, set the tone for the Proteas charge.

Australia bowled out for 212 on day one, and on the ascendancy. He picked up four more in the second innings, demonstrating that despite playing in a final littered with world-class fast bowlers, he sits at the head of the table.

“A couple of days ago I went to the ICC Hall of Fame event… in a couple of years, KG will be one of those guys,” Bavuma said with a puffed-out chest, before being presented with the Test mace.

“When he came into the game, there was controversy around him. He was motivated to do what he needed to do, and like a champion, he came and did what he did.”

Read more: Proteas make history by clinching the World Test Championship mace over Australia

Before the WTC final, Rabada said that he doesn’t play for individual awards and that if SA won the final and he didn’t take any wickets, he would be happier than if he took a five-for and they lost.

At the Home of Cricket, he’s had his bread buttered on both sides. Six hours after the winning runs were hit by Verreynne, Rabada came back on to the ground and kissed the Lord’s pitch — emulating Makhaya Ntini’s iconic image at the same ground when he took 10 wickets at the ground in 2003.

Even though he was one wicket away from that feat, not achieving it has no consequence on his joy in helping the team grab the Test mace from Australia.

Aiden means born of fire

SA were skittled out for 138 on day two, after Australia’s pace attack man-handled the Protea batters. At stumps on day one the Proteas were 43 for four. Aiden Markram was one of those four, chopping on a Mitchell Starc snorter in the first over of the innings for a duck.

He came to the crease in the second innings on a pair but walked off a hero, as every person capable of standing in the Lord’s ground recognised his effort, while each Australian player on the field shook his hand as he walked off — the ultimate sign of respect for an innings of the highest calibre in a pressure cooker situation. Aiden Kyle Markram, his name etched on the honour’s board at Lord’s for the first time.

Before the WTC final, only 14 players in Test cricket history have ever scored three or more fourth-innings centuries. After the WTC final, Markram became the 15th, joining an elite list which includes Graeme Smith, Sachin Tendulkar and Donald Bradman, among others.

What kept Markram going for six and a half hours in the biggest red-ball match of his career?

“I thought a lot about the T20 World Cup last night and how hopeless I felt sitting on the side after getting out,” Markram said, commenting on SA’s seven-run defeat to India at the T20 World Cup final last year.

“I was like, I don’t want to sit there again. So it gave me a bit of motivation to make sure I stayed at the crease if I could.”

Name stamped in history

Bavuma, unlike Markram and Rabada, will not have his name engraved on the Lord’s board, but his name is stamped in South African cricket history forever.

He came into the match as the only Protea batter in the top 15 batting rankings, and the weight of expectations on his shoulders from a run-scoring perspective.

Bavuma walked in with the team on 19 for two in the first innings, his cameo of 36 off 84 deliveries taking the team to 94 for five, digging them out of what would have been an impossible hole to get a somewhat respectable score on the board.

In the second innings, with a strained hamstring, he scored 66 vitally important runs in a 147 third-wicket stand with Markram.

Thoughts in winning moment

What was going through his mind when the winning runs were struck and he became the first South African captain to win a major ICC trophy?

“It hasn’t been easy,” he said. “It’s not easy being captain of South Africa.”

“All the sacrifices, all the disappointment, at that moment really feels worth it, you know?

“When you’re going through it all, giving up is always an option, it’s always there, it’s always there at the back of your mind.

“But something kind of holds you on. And I think for me, it was that moment there [the winning runs hit by Verreynne].”

The colour of Bavuma’s skin has been a topic of discussion since his Test debut in 2014, with vile, unwarranted criticism aimed at the man from Langa township in the Western Cape. Now, one of the greatest days in South African cricket history will always be associated with Bavuma — who remains undefeated as a Test captain.

“To be recognised as more than just a black African cricketer, but to be seen as someone who’s done something that the country has [always] wanted,” Bavuma said.

“I’ll definitely walk around with my chest out. I can only hope that it continues to inspire our country.”

The South African cricket fraternity can do more than just hope now, from today they can start to believe. DM