Chokers no more: Aiden Markram lifts South Africa on top of the world

Markram took his team to within six runs, when he clipped Josh Hazlewood to midwicket, where Travis Head held a smart catch. He remained at the crease, almost as if he had let the side down, before turning towards the pavilion, as the ground rose to award him a bouquet. The scoreboard revealed he had ­batted for 81 overs and made 136 runs, acquired with the straightest of bats, and nerves of steel. It was an innings worthy of this great stage.

Although his Test career has been a thing of threads and patches, Markram can now look forward to hearing songs about him for the rest of his days. Bavuma, who shared the match-turning stand of 147 for the third wicket before he went early on the last morning for an excellent 66, can stand proudly on top of the world.

Markram, as unyielding as an Old Testament prophet, found an ideal partner in Bavuma, who deserves a gong for gallantry. From his ninth run onwards the tiny skipper was restricted by a heavily strapped left hamstring. Yet he hobbled on, refusing to bend the knee to Australia’s four-pronged attack.

Australia will rue the chance Bavuma offered on two. Steve Smith, at slip, was the fielder, but it would be rough to blame him. The South Africans also granted Mitchell Starc a life, before he clobbered the half-­century which appeared to give the Aussies a decisive lead. That’s the game, and thank goodness it is.

The hour of glory belonged to Bavuma and his men, who earned it the hard way. Seventy-four runs behind on first innings, they rallied valiantly with the ball only to see Alex Carey and Starc extend the target to 282. Riches, in a low-scoring game, when the fast bowler was master, and there was only one six. Full marks to Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi, their chief wicket-takers. Markram’s century should be viewed in that context.

In their flowing cups those players should honour their predecessors, who represented some mighty teams. From the recent past they may remember Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, those supreme fast bowlers, though it is worth pointing out that Rabada moved past Donald’s 330 Test wickets in this match. Donald knew just how fickle a mistress this game can be. In 1998, he bowled his heart out in an English summer, and ­finished on the losing side.

Graeme Smith, captain at 22, knew happier days in this country. So did Dale Steyn, Donald’s successor, and the multi-talented AB de Villiers. Then there was the relentless Jacques Kallis, who piled up runs as a miser counts pennies – 13,289 runs in 166 Tests, even if few people can recall a stroke he played.

For perspective Bavuma should instruct his men to go back even further. Only once, in the spring of 1970, have South Africans been able to claim that they had the best team in the world.

That side, led by Ali Bacher, ­vanquished the Australians by four matches to none, and the margin of victory is worth stating, to emphasise the chasm between the sides: 170 runs, an innings and 129 runs, 307 runs and 323 runs.

The modern cricketer does not always look with favour on those who came before. But it is impossible to overlook the greatness of three men in Bacher’s team. Graeme Pollock declared his talent fully that year, making 274 at Durban. In the 23 Tests he managed before South Africa’s banishment from international cricket in the summer of 1970, a suspension that lasted 21 years, he averaged 60.

Barry Richards and Mike Procter had offered tantalising hints of their gifts. Richards made 140, also at Durban. Procter was the leading wicket-taker in that series, with 26. Eddie Barlow was also on parade, an all-rounder good enough to make a double-century going in first against Australia.

Procter and Barlow are no longer with us, alas. But what good they did for cricket in South Africa, and in this country. Procter and Barlow transformed Gloucestershire and Derbyshire. Richards, in his decade with Hampshire, revealed himself to be the most graceful, as well as the most punishing, of opening batsmen.

So the current team should offer a beaker or two to Pollock and Richards, who would have conquered the world. Asked which batsman he would place above all others in a lifetime of watching the game, the great cricket writer John Woodcock said: “Barry.” Thinking of what he might have accomplished if he had been granted a full career in Tests could make a grown man blub.

Salute them all, you victors, for they created the game you inherited, and must be numbered in the ­chorus. There are ghosts everywhere, and Richards’s presence yesterday to cast an all-seeing eye over players who enjoyed the life he was denied, is a link in the chain of history.

South Africa won this match, but nobody lost. Smith, Starc and Pat Cummins showed why they are champion cricketers, and the thousands of South African and Australian spectators, who filled the ground, watched attentively. Lord’s looked glorious.

South Africa don’t play much Test cricket these days, which makes their triumph all the more remarkable. Maybe even the International Cricket Council, whose mission seems to be turning wine into water, might acknowledge that five-day cricket challenges players and spectators like no other.

This game was played fiercely, in a spirit of comradeship. The applause that greeted Bavuma’s half-century was heartfelt, and there was no finer moment than Markram’s acknowledgement of his century. No show pony, he. Off with the helmet, up with the bat. Lord’s will remember that gesture.

And so, at the end of one of the happiest weeks this ground has seen, Bavuma could stand atop his very own castle, and declare: “South Africans past and present, and yet to come, I bless you all.”

Photograph by Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images