IND vs SA: Bavuma eschews elegance for element to stand tall at Eden Gardens

Temba Bavuma has probably never scored a fifty of such scratchy quality as the one he did in the second innings of the opening Test between India and South Africa. The South African skipper would also have never scored a fifty of such priceless nature, too.

On an undecipherable pitch – where nearly every other batter felt asphyxiated – against a formidable Indian bowling attack, Bavuma persisted. He stripped his batting of all its excesses, eschewing the elegant for the elemental.

Over 136 deliveries, spread over two days, the 35-year-old just scored four fours – one came off his inside edge, getting him to his fifty. He was beaten by pacers and spinners alike and had his edge extracted as many as 16 times. But, critically for South Africa, he survived.

Ultimately, Bavuma’s unbeaten 55 – the only fifty of the Test – proved to be the game’s defining performance, as South Africa edged India by just 30 runs after a tense third-day finish on Sunday.

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Bavuma’s knock was of such criticality that the South African head coach, Shukri Conrad, kept circling back to it, even when unprompted, at the post-match press conference.

“Over the last 24 months or so, he’s been one of the best players in the world. He showed that again this morning and yesterday afternoon. He was clear on how he wanted to do it and went against the grain of everybody else in the match. That was the difference between the two sides – Temba’s innings,” hailed Conrad.

On Saturday, Bavuma walked into bat just when the ball was starting to grip the surface, with India shuffling between its three left-arm spinners – Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.

As vouched by Bavuma, the unpredictable bounce of the surface made batting against spin a slippery prospect.

“I think yesterday, from a seam point of view, there weren’t [any] demons,” said Bavuma after the Test. “From a spin point of view, I felt that it was tricky, a little bit on the extreme side. I found it a bit tricky to trust the bounce of the wicket.

“Some balls were bouncing nicely, others were squatting, making the cross-batted shots a bit harder. But I always back my defence. I think my game is that simple. I try to play around my defence,” said Bavuma.

Central to Bavuma’s steely, match-winning knock was his acceptance of the untameable nature of this Eden pitch. He refused to hit his way out of trouble and prioritised singles and doubles, making the best use of the open fields granted by India.

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As highlighted by Conrad, Bavuma didn’t mind being encircled by the pressure imparted by the Indian spinners, while not getting consumed by it.

“There was prodigious turn as the Test went on. Then you have a guy like Jadeja, who is an absolute genius on wickets like this. He just doesn’t give you anything, and you feel suffocated as a batter.

“I think therein lies the difference in that someone like Temba. He was happy to be suffocated but remained comfortable. He was comfortable as he stuck to his game plan, which was ‘I’m going to get beat by balls on the outside as long as I don’t get beat on the inside, I’ll bat through this’,” said Conrad.

Despite enduring his way to Stumps on Day 2, Bavuma knew the game was still in India’s corner, with South Africa tottering at 93 for seven. But in Corbin Bosch, he found an ally, with the two putting on 44 valuable runs for the eighth wicket, boosting the lead past 100.

“Coming in this morning, I think my message was always to just try and play what’s in front of you. Try not to have too many preconceived ideas. Fortunately, this morning it did kind of calm down a bit. Obviously, there was still a bit of turn. But Corbin and I could build a partnership,” said Bavuma.

South Africa eventually ended up setting a target of 124, which in the end proved to be 30 more than what India could muster up. In addition to marshalling his troops in the run chase, Bavuma chipped in with an excellent catch, running back from mid on, to dismiss Axar Patel, who was threatening to produce a dramatic late swing for India.

“We had the belief. It’s not every day you go and score 125 and you feel that that’s a winning score. But we had to believe. We knew it was tough. We saw with our own innings, with the bat. We took confidence in the fact that we were able to put them under pressure with the ball in the first innings. The bowlers brought us back into the game,” added Bavuma.

Aided in no small part by his own batting effort, Bavuma is now the fastest captain, ever, to 10 Test wins (from 11 Tests), breaking the record previously held by Australia’s Lindsay Hassett and England’s Ben Stokes (12 matches).

It is important to note that Bavuma averages 57 while leading in Tests, compared to 38.42 when he is not. From those 11 games, he has scored more runs (969) than any of his teammates.

Leadership clearly unlocks the best of Bavuma in Test cricket, as the Eden Gardens witnessed, firsthand, on Sunday.

Published on Nov 16, 2025