South Africa got the title of ‘chokers’, because they were losing important games in ICC, but now they have get rid of this title. Temba Bavuma got to knew about some references when Australia tried their best to puzzle South Africa on the fourth day at Lord’s.
When fourth day of the match started, Bavuma and Aiden Markram resumed while needing 69 to win, Australia bowlers reminded them the match isn’t finished yet. Temba Bavuma was dismissed, while there were still 65runs to achieve. Later Tristan Stubbs was also bowled by Mitchell Starc while they still needed 41 runs to win.
But at the end, the target was easily completed by the Markram.
Bavuma said that playing against current Australian team is a different experience than in the past. He was referring to the infamous 2018 series.
“Playing against Australia is a bit different in the last couple of years,” he said. “They’re not as vocal out on the field. They’re still aggressive through their body language, through obviously their skill, but there’s not a lot of chatter.”
“Of course, the tag of us being chokers, that came about this morning. One of their players threw out the fact that we could lose our eight wickets in less than 60 runs. I definitely heard that.”
“Aiden kept using the [words] lock in after every over, let’s keep locking in. Let’s give them nothing. So yeah, not a lot of chatter, just one or two things that were, that were said.”
Australia prolonged the game as much as they can and in the end they could take the second new ball, but at that time only 14 runs left to win and Markram easily made them.
“It was kind of just draw it out as long as we can, try and for the pace bowlers, just try and go for two runs an over,” Cummins said. “[Nathan] Lyon was looking really likely and you never know, maybe some clouds come over, maybe a new ball does something different, just try to string it out as more and more nerves play into it as well.”
Markram completed his century on the third evening and he got emotional while sharing his views about last year’s T20 World Cup when he couldn’t played it and was on bed.“It would be great to not have to hear it again, that’s for sure,” he said. “In terms of it motivating you, I mean, there’s always going to be external things that can motivate you, but it’s not your sole purpose for playing. To have got the job done and to literally have got the job done and to get rid of that is quite a big thing for this team.”
Cummins evaluated the performance of Markram and South Africa’s team performance collectively after some debates.
“A few of us have played alongside him as well in IPL and [he’s] very well respected,” he said. “He’s a good man, Aidan. Unfortunately for us, he kind of made it look pretty easy out there and just built a big innings. We threw a fair bit at him, but [he] had an answer for everything.”
“Everyone has a slightly different route to make the final, but they absolutely deserved to make the final and showed why I think they’re very deserving champions.”
