NEIL MANTHORP: Bavuma is your man when the chips are down
Tough batting conditions have always brought out the best in the SA captain
The signs were there early and have remained for much of the past decade but they are not the signs typically recognised by the average cricket watcher. In July 2015, on a typically bare and difficult pitch in Chittagong, he top scored with 54 in a total of 248 eked from 83 overs. It was just his third Test match.
In November 2016, under thunderous, grey skies and on a fiercely grassed pitch, Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott bowled Australia out for 85 and SA slipped to 76/4 in reply. The series was at stake with SA having won the first Test. History beckoned — only the West Indies had ever won three consecutively in Australia...
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