Cricket
SA's batting sees the future
With his century, Markram joins the ranks of the Aussie-rattlers
Aiden Markram's supporters need to know that the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 164.
It's how long Markram has been a senior international player: 164 days.
If it seems like he's been part of the national cricket conversation for longer, that's because he has. Few outside the subculture of schools cricket knew Markram's name before he captained South Africa to triumph at the 2014 Under-19 World Cup.
Suddenly everybody knew who he was, and they will for decades yet - not least because of the 143 he scored at Kingsmead last Sunday.
That the century was not Markram's maiden hundred but his third mattered less than the fact that he scored it against Australia, and in a match taut with tension and prickly with pressure.
So much so that when he scrambled the single to reach three figures he thought of .
"Not a lot," Markram said. "Quite a bit of a relief, if anything.
"I can't tell you exactly how I was feeling, but there wasn't a lot of happiness because we were in a tough position."
Australia's stranglehold never eased and they won by 118 runs early on the fifth day. But there's no erasing Markram's hundred from the record books nor from his growing bank of experience.
"To have got it against Australia, playing them for the first time, was very special.
"A hundred in a losing cause is never nice, but batting through most of that [fourth] day did a lot for me. There's a lot of pressure in international cricket and this is a big series, and to have started it well has taken some of that pressure off."
Only eight tests into his career, Markram knows a truth that will serve him well however much he and others believe he is set to play at the highest level for exponentially more than 164 days: "It's important to perform. You can't play on reputation. Performances are what count."
And performances define players.
Would Faf du Plessis have become South Africa's captain had he not gutsed it out for more than a day to score an undefeated 110 on debut to help South Africa draw the Adelaide test in November 2012?..
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