Bavuma and Stubbs demonstrate Proteas' batting revival

Tristan Stubbs felt in control for most of his innings, except for a period after he’d reached 100, when anxiety struck. 

He and his captain Temba Bavuma had forged an excellent partnership, which had already ripped away any hope Sri Lanka had of matching the feat they achieved at this venue five years ago. 

Stubbs was on 102 when Bavuma, on 98, called him over for a chat in the middle of left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya’s 35th over.

“He’d just taken a single to go to 98 at the start of that over, and then came and told me to get him back on strike — he said, ‘Please get me one here.’ That was the most nervous I felt the whole day. I was like, ‘I’ve got to get one here’,” Stubbs recalled.

He duly eased a single through the covers, leaving Bavuma to face three balls.

“Getting to the three-figure mark was nerve-racking,” Bavuma said afterwards. He wasn’t helped by Sri Lanka deciding to review umpire Sharfuddoula’s “not out” call as he played a sweep. 

Bavuma initially celebrated, then put his helmet back on, then took it off again, once replays showed he’d got a tiny scratch on the ball.

“I saw him hit it straight away, so I wasn’t stressed — but I could see he was nervous, which made me nervous,” said Stubbs. 

Even the band from Northwood High School — Shaun Pollock and Keshav Maharaj’s alma mater — who had played Gimme Hope Joanna as Stubbs made his way through the 90s, had downed their instruments as the Proteas skipper tentatively closed in on his landmark. 

“Getting to three figures is always satisfying personally,” Bavuma smiled later. 

The relief and joy had deeper meaning for both him, Stubbs and the team more generally. South Africa has struggled to make hundreds in recent years. They haven’t been helped by the dearth of Test cricket on the Proteas' schedule, nor the fact that when they play at home they often do so on the most difficult surfaces in the world. 

But this year, they are trending upwards. Between 2019 and 2023, SA batters had struck just 13 Test centuries — in 2024, there have been eight already and there are still two more matches to come. 

“In terms of the batting line-up, we are starting to believe that in each innings someone can get a hundred. It’s good to add to that confidence,” said Bavuma, who made 113, the third hundred of his career. 

Stubbs’ 122 was his second century in a row, after a maiden ton in Bangladesh, and it was noticeable how satisfying it was for him — not only because it was on home soil but because making hundreds in this country is bloody tough, as generations of Proteas batters before him have said.

“Anywhere in SA, when you get in, you can’t give it away — you’ve got to make it count,” he said. “At the Warriors we tell each other hundreds don’t win you first-class games; we call it ‘big daddy hundreds’ — but here a hundred in SA might be a really big score somewhere else.”

The sample size remains small — this is only SA’s eighth Test this year — but the fact that hundreds, so scarce previously, now seem to be becoming regular features of their Test match play is extremely satisfying. 

The big partnerships are making a return, too. Friday's 249-run fourth-wicket stand was the sixth century stand of the year by the Proteas and the second double-hundred partnership in a row — after Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi put on 201 in Chittagong.

As for Stubbs, his performance was the extension of a purple patch that stretches back to August when he made his highest T20 International score: 76 against the West Indies. Since then he’s made his maiden ODI century, against Ireland, and now back-to-back Test hundreds. 

Boxed as a T20 player until Shukri Conrad insisted he be the Test team’s No 3, he is relishing the responsibility of playing in what is historically the most important spot in the batting order.

“Batting long is always lekker — and it is a lot more satisfying than any T20 shot,” he said.