‘Temba is held in such high esteem’: captain’s brilliance gives young guns leeway

Shukri Conrad said he was already able to see growth within the Proteas team after just one series in charge as head coach. 

“Just to see smiles on people’s faces and a happy changeroom that’s the real fun part for me,” the new Test coach said after South Africa raced to a 284-run victory against the West Indies on the fourth day of the second match at the Wanderers on Saturday to seal a 2-0 series win.

It was South Africa’s fifth consecutive Test win against the Caribbean islanders and their first series win since beating Bangladesh in April last year. In-between they suffered defeats in England and Australia, the latter trip described by Conrad as a “dark period”. 

“I really think the fundamentals and cornerstones are there for this team to grow from a culture point of view,” he said. 

Conrad reserved high praise for the new Test captain, Temba Bavuma, whose 172 turned the match in his team’s favour on Friday.

“Temba is held in such high esteem; some of the comments from the guys in our post-day review, they stood up and just lorded him for where he has come from and all the stick he gets,” Conrad said. 

“For him to come out and play like that, also having just assumed the mantle of captain, it speaks volumes for the character and the ownership he has taken of the side along with the rest of the leadership group.”

Bavuma said it was important for him to make such a statement at this early stage of his tenure, though not so much from an individual perspective, but rather what it meant for some of the younger players in the team.

“It helps to have a few guys who are putting in match-winning performances, because that buys you a bit of time. It gives the other guys in the team more room to breathe,” Bavuma said.

“You have to give a bit of leeway for guys like Tony de Zorzi and Ryan Rickelton who are still finding their way at this level.”

While the bowlers continued to perform at a high level, whether it was the seamers in both Tests or spinners Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj at Wanderers, the batting continued to be inconsistent. There were collapses in both matches and Bavuma needed to save proceedings in the second innings on Friday.

“We have been speaking about how we want to play. We probably don’t have that fully in check yet,” Bavuma said.

“Through more conversations we will be able to articulate it better and more importantly show it out there on the field of play.”

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.