SA’s stunning victory at Eden Gardens on Sunday wasn’t just lauded in this country but around the world. Even a small minority of Indian supporters recognised the irony of the home side being beaten very much at their own game and questioned the wisdom of preparing such a radical pitch and selecting four spinners.
Maximising home ground advantage is not just legitimate but sensible provided home teams accept that the more extreme conditions are, the more chance there is of a backfire. The Proteas have been run close in numerous Test matches over the past two decades on green, bouncy pitches at home but have usually prevailed.
But that wasn’t the case the last time the two teams met before the Kolkata Test when Mohammad Siraj claimed 6/15 to dismiss the home side for 55 before lunch on the first day. They had the match wrapped up before tea on day two, the fewest deliveries ever bowled to produce a positive result in Test cricket.
Just as SA knew the risks, India were well aware of the threats posed by Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj yet “ordered” exactly the pitch which was delivered by the obedient Eden Gardens groundstaff. An underprepared pitch that assists spinners often provides encouragement for the fast bowlers too, and the great Jasprit Bumrah appeared to have sunk the tourists with 5/27 on the first day.
Yet even without an injured Kagiso Rabada and with Maharaj firing on just two cylinders, SA restricted India’s lead to a modest 30 runs having been bundled out for just 159. Marco Jansen’s match haul of 5/50 filled the Rabada void and Harmer’s 8/51 kept SA in the Test and then did most to win it. His man-of-the-match award however, left him feeling “empty”.
“It should have gone to Temba, it was his innings that kept us in the game and gave us a total we could defend,” said the off-spinner in the joyous confines of the euphoric changeroom after the game. He had a point, and it wasn’t just the captain’s unbeaten 55, the only half century of the match.
Good captains are almost all outwardly calm, especially in the toughest moments. That it can be no more than “act” is irrelevant; it is more important for their players than themselves, especially the bowlers working at the sharp end of the innings. It is one of the reasons so few bowlers are made captain. Bavuma was calm to the point of serenity.
He spoke afterwards about the importance of belief in a situation as seemingly unlikely as defending 124 in the fourth innings of a Test match. Harmer concurred, with an amusing caveat: “Even if it means kidding yourself into believing it’s possible”, he said in the afterglow of one of the country’s most famous victories.
“It still feels a bit surreal. I’m not sure it’s fully sunk in yet but I don’t mind that — it means we can continue to enjoy it for a bit longer,” Harmer said.
Bavuma also made some brave decisions, which hastened India’s demise to 93 all out, most notably introducing part-timer Aiden Markram into the attack at a critical stage of the run-chase, seeing him dismiss the top-scorer, Washington Sundar, and then replacing him with Maharaj after an impressive spell of 3-0-5-1. Appropriately it was also Bavuma who held onto a steepling catch in the outfield to claim the final wicket — off Maharaj.
But his runs were more important than all of the above, and we should not be surprised. He has been in the habit of scoring more than anyone else when conditions are at their most challenging. In Test cricket since 2021 Bavuma has averaged almost exactly 50. The rest of SA’s top seven batsmen have averaged 29.3 between them. The opposition’s top seven have averaged 27.8 between them.
The second Test begins in Guwahati on Saturday, another venue notorious for its spin-friendly conditions. The home side may, or may not like to know that Harmer and Maharaj have only played together seven times, winning five of those matches. Between them they have 65 wickets in those victories at an eye-watering average of just 15.3.
“Right now we’ve earned ourselves two days of rest,” Harmer said on Monday. “It’s very important to enjoy victories; you never know when you’ll get another one in India. We’ll think about Guwahati in a couple of days.” You can be absolutely certain the home side aren’t waiting a couple of days …
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