Star Proteas batter David Miller has joined thousands of South African cricket fans from all over in celebrating the match-defining and series-clinching century struck by white-ball captain Temba Bavuma in the second ODI played in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
After leading the side to a crucial win in the first game on Friday, also in Bloemfontein, Bavuma stepped up after a torrid few months of poor form and being on the end of plenty of criticism to score a stunning 109 off 102 balls to get the Proteas across the line.
“The way he did it’
Chasing a mammoth 343 to win the second ODI, Bavuma stood out in an excellent all-round performance, with the batters especially coming to the fore.
“That was one of the most exciting innings I’ve seen,” Miller said on Tuesday, ahead of the third and final match of the series in Kimberley on Wednesday.
“Not necessarily because Temba scored a hundred, but because of the way he did it. He batted phenomenally well.
“He put the pressure on the bowlers from the word go and kept that tempo so it was a match-winning knock.”
‘Outstanding’
Miller, with emerging all-rounder Marco Jansen not far behind, finished off the game with some big late hitting, called Bavuma’s knock “outstanding”.
“Temba’s been working really hard on his game and his innings was just outstanding.
“The maturity he batted with was so good to see and I’m very chuffed for him.
“He would have taken great learnings out of that and I think he showed everyone and himself that he can score at a very healthy run-rate with just normal cricket shots.”
Victory in Kimberley would not only give South Africa a magnificent 3-0 sweep of the series against the world champions, but would also lift them into the top eight, and the automatic qualification places, in the World Cup Super League.
