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At the 2023-2025 World Test Championship, South Africa have a reasonably good chance to win their first senior global cricket title of the 21st century.
Temba Bavuma was left with no choice that night. Australia needed only 20, but only Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood were left to bat. One wicket could have earned South Africa a berth in the final.
Unfortunately, Kagiso Rabada was nursing a bruised heel and could not add to the six overs he had bowled that night. Gerald Coetzee refused to yield – seventy thousand voices at the Eden Gardens amplified every appeal of his – but this was not his night. Bavuma had to take Coetzee off after eight overs on the trot. He simply could not go on anymore. Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc got the runs.
It was not a first for cricket fans. It was not the first time South African faltered after lighting up a global tournament. Their women’s team had lost the T20 World Cup final earlier that year. Both genders lost the T20 World Cup finals in 2024, as did the Under-19 women in 2025.
The phase is not new either. South Africa’s Golden Generation in the late 1990s won the Champions Trophy and the Commonwealth Games gold medal, but is remembered more for the 1996 and 1999 exits. Flanking these two heartbreaks were the two rain-induced disasters, in 1992 and 2003. Then there was 2011, 2015… you get the idea.
The reasons are many. A questionable rain rule. Brian Lara’s magnificence. The Klusener-Donald brain-fade. A collapse against spin. Grant Elliott. Suryakumar Yadav’s catch.
South Africa are an exceptional cricket team across formats, as is evident from the above chart. Even in World Cups, they have been consistently among the best. Teams with less sustained success have won trophies in their cabinets.
Unfortunately, consistency plays little role in the creation of narratives: for most, South Africa continue to remain an outstanding team one associates with heartbreaks, not triumphs.
They have been an incredible Test side as well. Since 1992 – the year they returned to Test cricket – they have been as good as any other team.
Pundits have raised eyebrows over their seemingly “easy” schedules in the 2023-2025 cycle. What that narrative does not consider is that South Africa as good as conceded the two Test matches in New Zealand, and lost crucial points when the Port of Spain Test match was washed out. They also became the first ‘SENA’ team to win a Test series in Bangladesh in 14 years.
So far, so good — but now comes the crucial bit, the phase pundits and fans alike refer to as “when it really matters”. If they stumble at Lord’s, the knives will come out, as will the dreaded c-word. But if they prevail, they may inspire a generation to believe that a global trophy need not remain elusive.
Jacques Kallis keeps them ahead. “Conditions can vary so much at Lord’s. Sometimes the pitch can be really flat, but generally it does do a bit, and there’s more movement in South Africa than there is in Australia, so our batters are better at dealing with the moving ball than the Australians are, because they spend half their lives playing against it,” he told Sportsboom.co.za.
“To maximise revenue and make sure the match goes the distance, the pitch will probably be good for batting, but I think the Proteas maybe have a slight edge in that department.”
Australia have an incredible record at Lord’s (18 wins, seven defeats). However, since their return from their ban, South Africa have won five here and lost one, and have a better win-loss ratio than any side (including England). They are going to make this difficult for Australia.
Read: South Africa’s on-and-off-field regeneration have laid foundations for new golden age
Bavuma was not the first role model for Black South African cricketers, but neither Makhaya Ntini nor Vernon Philander nor Rabada is a batter. Black South African cricketers are expected to bowl, not bat.
“There’s a stereotype that black players should be bowlers,” explained Sinethemba Qeshile, a Black batter who played for South Africa in 2019 and still plays for South Africa A. “The first thing we’re taught is how to bowl. Not a lot of guys actually get taught how to carry a bat until much later.”
Bavuma initially did not understand the significance of becoming the first Black South African to score a Test hundred, against England at Cape Town in 2016/17. “I didn’t understand it at the beginning,” he later told the Wisden Cricket Monthly. “But you can’t ignore our past or the sacrifices that certain people made so that people like myself can have the opportunities that we enjoy today.”
Bavuma has scored 1,794 Test runs at 48.48 in the 2020s. Only five batters – none of them a South African – have scored more runs than him at a better average. What is more, he plays his home Tests in South Africa, where the batting average (27.10) has been the second-worst in this decade, after India’s 27.08. Bavuma has indeed evolved into a superior Test batter than perceived by most.
What about his other role? Not only is Bavuma South Africa’s first Black Test captain but he is yet to lose a Test match while at the helm (eight wins, one draw – his numbers read). Unfortunately, that night at the Eden Gardens when he was left without Rabada, however, is his highest moment as captain in a big tournament. To build a legacy, one needs to reach the next level.
The year 2025 has been a streak-ender – and that stretches beyond the Hobart Hurricanes and the RCB. Bologna and Coppa Italia, Crystal Palace and the FA Cup, Paris Saint-Germain and the UEFA Champions League – the list is long. The NBA will have a new champion as well, for neither Oklahoma City nor Indiana Pacers has won before.
Maybe this is South Africa and Bavuma’s year as well.
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