Follow UsCould any match sum up Aiden Markram’s career better than this one?
One moment, he leaves you frustrated, making you wonder about all the 'wasted potential’ by registering a six-ball duck with a golden opportunity in front of him.
The next moment, he’s out there playing one of the greatest ever knocks in South African Test history against one of the best ever attacks, in the single most important game in the country’s cricket history.
For eight years, Markram has been South African cricket’s ultimate enigma. But now, he is hours away from delivering the biggest title in the country’s history, one that the entire nation has yearned for and has been denied for the best part of three decades.
It’s not one bit surprising, is it?
For all the frustrations of the past eight years, for all the what-ifs, for all the missed opportunities, Makram’s always had one thing in his locker: the ability to play near-perfect knocks on his day.
When he is in the zone, Markram hits that unstoppable ‘god mode’ where everything and everyone is beneath him; where time freezes as he manipulates proceedings according to his will. If you don’t believe these words, just go back and re-watch the 106 against India at Cape Town last year.
So even though he got out for a duck in the first innings, Australia knew they had to see his back early in the chase. And Australia knew, alright: even before this final, he’d averaged 60.00 against them in Test cricket.
But what’s the point of knowing when you ultimately cannot do anything to stop what’s coming your way?
As Ian Smith put it beautifully post the third day’s play, “Australia have not bowled badly. They’ve just been denied.”
On the day, the Australian bowlers were by no means ordinary. They did what was required to be done on that surface and followed the blueprint of the first three innings.
Admittedly the surface had lost a considerable amount of juice with the pitch (finally) flattening out and the sun beating down, but what Markram did with his bat was nothing short of a masterclass — a masterclass on how to approach a fourth innings chase; a masterclass on how to manipulate the field masterfully; a masterclass on how to frustrate a world-class attack.
For starters, after the disastrous ‘cautious’ approach in the first innings, it was always going to be imperative for South Africa to maintain a good tempo in the chase; more so because it was always going to get difficult to score as the ball got older, with the surface being really slow.
That way, Markram made the near-perfect start as he hammered 40 off his first 50 balls, not only denying Australia early momentum but also ensuring that runs got shaved off the target quickly. South Africa were 80/2 at the 20-over mark — for comparison, at the same point in their first innings, they found themselves 30/3.
As attested to above, what stood out was how Markram almost toyed with the field, particularly through the off-side. 28 of his 40 runs during this phase came through the off-side, and he kept alternating between the back-foot punch towards square, the cover drive off the front-foot and the back-foot punch through cover.
Containing runs was not in Australia’s initial plans, but Markram forced them to revert to defensive fields through his field-manipulation.
Once the hard work had been done, the second part of Markram’s innings was about not losing concentration, not throwing it away, something he’s been guilty of doing far too many times in his career. Markram passed the test with flying colours.
There was one semi-loose shot off Nathan Lyon to a ball that pitched in the rough, but that was about it. Otherwise, he was so locked in that, at times, he looked like the cricketing equivalent of the ‘lockdown mode’ Novak Djokovic. If you're a Tennis fan, you know exactly how invincible and scary that particular version of Novak is.
The third act was all about driving home the advantage once he and skipper Bavuma had neutralised Australia’s threat, and Markram couldn’t have done it any better. The right-hander left the Australian bowlers hopeless and frustrated, and much of it came because he was taking them for boundaries on good deliveries. Australia threw all the punches they had at him, and yet Makram not only dodged those hits, but struck back with ones that were twice as lethal.
It was not until the penultimate over of the day that Markram brought up his century, and he acknowledged it with a celebration that projected to the entire world his thoughts: ‘Yep, this is nice, I’m happy, but the job is far from done. It has just started.’
Indeed, 69 runs with 8 wickets in hand on a surface that’s flattened out is a cakewalk, but so was 30 off 30 balls at the Caribbean a year back.
South Africa have been here before, and so has Markram. A happy end is something he and his teammates have never seen to date.
In less than 24 hours’ time, though, that is surely about to change, and so is Markram’s career and legacy.
The wicket of Steve Smith on day one. A partnership-ending breakthrough in the third innings. And now a fourth innings ton on day three. Come to think of it, could any match sum up Aiden Markram’s career better than this one?