Bavuma’s Century Powers Proteas Towards a Good Score at Tea

A wonderful century from captain Temba Bavuma powered the Proteas towards a score that should allow them to put some pressure on Australia to try and force a result, as they reached the tea break on day three on 318/7 in their first innings of the second test at St Geroge’s Park in Gqeberha yesterday.
During a rain-hit opening two days, and early in the morning on day three, the Proteas were in all sorts of trouble on 40/4 and then 110/6, before Bavuma received superb support from Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer.
Bavuma is still standing tall on 125 off 266 balls (14×4; 1×6) and has been brilliant while sharing in match-changing partnerships of 132 with Jansen, who cracked 85 off 100 (9×4; 3×6), and unbeaten 76 with Harmer, who will resume on 30 off 68 (6×4) in the day’s final session.
The post-lunch session got under way with the Proteas on 216/6, with Bavuma on 76 and Jansen on 72 off 71 balls, and he will be slightly disappointed that he didn’t come out after the break as aggressively as he was in the morning session.
He managed to add 13 to his score, but then fell as soon as the new ball became available as Scott Boland first got a ball to jag back and hit him in his lower midriff, and a few balls later flicked the ball straight to Travis Head at short midwicket, leaving them on 242/7.
That was Boland’s fifth wicket of the match, but if the Aussies thought they would get the last few wickets cheaply, that wasn’t the case, as Harmer came in and superbly supported his captain to his fifth Test century, which Bavuma reached in style with a lovely pull for four to the deep midwicket fence off Aussie captain Pat Cummins.
Heading into the day’s last session, Bavuma and Harmer will likely be aiming to get them as close to 400 as possible, and they will probably want to put the Australians in and have a bowl at them late in the day in the fading light.
Earlier in the day the Proteas resumed on 97/5, and Bavuma and Wiaan Mulder (13) saw out the first half hour confidently, before Mitchell Starc snagged the breakthrough by bouncing out Mulder.
That brought Jansen to the crease, and he proceeded to flay the ball around the ground, as he immediately signalled his intent by thumping five boundaries in his first 10 balls, while Bavuma soon brought up his half-century with a flick to the deep fine leg boundary off Starc.
Jansen then went big with three maximums as he beautifully drove Boland back over his head, dismissively pulled Pat Cummins over deep square leg, and tried to take out the commentary box with a thumping shot over Renshaw’s head, as he raced to his half-century off 43 balls, with them then safely reaching lunch in a decent position.