The two former Trophy champions meet for the first time in the event's history in Rawalpindi today (3pm, Bangladesh Time), having each won their first games in Group B.
Captain Temba Bavuma hailed what he termed South Africa’s brave decision to bat first in their comprehensive 107-run Champions Trophy win over Afghanistan on Friday as they mastered a Karachi wicket that had left both teams unsure over how it would play.
Only once before in their history have South Africa won more Tests in succession, when they claimed nine victories on the trot between 2002 and 2003.
Ryan Rickelton played a breakthrough innings as South Africa dominated the first day of the second Test against Pakistan at Newlands on Friday.
“I was still sulking in the toilet. There were not a lot of conversations. We still had the confidence. I did not come out to the viewing area and was in the toilet. I came when 15 runs were needed,” Bavuma laughed.
Five Test wins in a row, made up of away victories over West Indies in Guyana in August, two in Bangladesh in October and two more over Sri Lanka, means South Africa top the table of Test results over the last two-year cycle and are within touching distance of a place in the final at Lord’s from June 11-15.
A clean sweep of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, which starts at Kingsmead on Wednesday, and the two tests with Pakistan from Dec 26, would put South Africa into June’s final at Lord’s.
A major inclusion in the side sees full-time skipper Temba Bavuma return as skipper, having recovered from a left elbow injury, which ruled him out of the recent series in Bangladesh.
Aiden Markram will replace Temba Bavuma as South Africa captain for the first Test against Bangladesh later this month, Cricket South Africa said on Friday.
It is a second Test century for middle-order batter Bavuma in his 56th match. His maiden ton came against England at Newlands in 2016, and this one followed a pair of ducks in the first Test against a West Indies team he idolised growing up.
Temba Bavuma said he tried to "stay in the moment" as he approached a long-awaited second Test century. But he admitted that he could not entirely quell his emotions.
Aiden Markram helped South Africa race to a strong start before the West Indies fought back on the first day of the second Test in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Winning skipper Temba Bavuma will have mixed emotions about the start of his Test captaincy after South Africa beat the West Indies in the first Test at Centurion on Thursday but the diminutive batter joined an unwanted club.
“The West Indies was the team I supported growing up," he said
Bavuma became the first black African to captain South Africa at cricket when he was named leader of the one-day international and Twenty20 international teams in March 2021
England all-rounder Sam Curran has been fined 15 percent of his match fee and handed a demerit point for "excessively celebrating" his dismissal of South African captain Temba Bavuma in the second one-day international on Sunday.
South African captain Temba Bavuma hit a century to lead his team to a series-clinching five-wicket win in the second one-day international against England at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma vowed Sunday his team will come out with all guns blazing in their Twenty20 World Cup bow in Australia, with no time to ease themselves into the tournament.
Bangladesh mounted a terrific effort in getting their very first victory -- a 38-run win -- in South African soil against the Proteas during the first ODI at Centurion yesterday and a pivotal tactical blow was enforced by star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who outdid the ploy that South Africa coach Mark Boucher and captain Temba Bavuma had set Bangladesh up for.
