Temba Bavuma ended the long wait for South Africa to win an ICC title as he led the Proteas to the World Test Championship win over Australia in the final at Lord's. Bavuma and Aiden Markram's 147-run stand for the fourth wicket laid a strong platform for the Proteas to chase down the 282-run target against Australia with five wickets in hand.
Markram, who was dismissed for a duck in the first innings, came back strong with a 136-run knock in the second essay as his ice-cool innings turned out to be one of the most important innings in South African history. For his batting heroics, Markram was adjudged the Player of the Match in the final.
The ace batter also got two wickets in the final, one of Steve Smith in the first innings and then of Josh Hazlewood in the second.
While Markram turned things around with the bat, the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi were instrumental with the ball. Rabada took five wickets in the first innings after the captain Temba Bavuma had opted to bowl first under cloudy skies in London. He finished the innings with the figures of 5/51 and helped bowl the Aussies out for 212.
Rabada struck in the same vein in the second innings too. With his team already handed a 74-run trail at the end of the first innings, Rabada took four in the second innings alongside Ngidi's three-fer as Australia were reduced to 144/8 at the end of the second day and had hardly any wickets with them on a good batting day on Day 3.
Speaking after the match, Bavuma heaped praise on Rabada and Markram and also opened up on the narrative of South Africa playing against not-so-strong teams in their WTC journey.
"[On Kagiso Rabada] Yeah, KG [Rabada] is a massive player. A couple of days ago, I went to the ICC Hall of Fame meet. I think in a couple of years, KG will be one of those guys. When he came into the game, there was controversy behind him. He was motivated to do what he needed to do, and like a champion, he came and did what he did.
"[On Aiden Markram] Unbelievable. A couple of months ago, people were asking why Aiden is in the team. I think stats are important, but character is something that we look at. A guy like Aiden, he carries all those traits. We knew in the second innings we were going to have to come out and play and he led it in true Aiden fashion. Again, another massive player for us. Character has been a big thing for us as a team and those two guys are the ones who carry that," Bavuma said after the final.
Bavuma also emphasized on the need to celebrate this win in South Africa. "[Significance of this moment] I think us as a team, we got ourselves into the final. There were doubts as to the route that we took, supposedly playing weaker teams. We're happy that we were able to perform like this, and hopefully, that kind of squashes that. I think for us as a country, here's an opportunity for us to... as divided as we are at times, to forget all of that, rejoice in this moment and just be one. I'm sure the people back home will be celebrating it with us, and you can trust that we'll be celebrating it massively as well," he said.