Temba Bavuma brings ‘hope’ to life as South Africa crush India for stunning 2-0 series win | Cricket News
South Africa scored a stunning 408-run victory over India in the second Test in Guwahati to seal a 2-0 scoreline and cap off one of their greatest years in cricket. Earlier in June, they beat Australia to win the World Test Championship, breaking a 27-year wait for an ICC trophy. No South African captain had won a world title since 1998 and no South African captain had won a Test series in India for 25 years. Temba Bavuma has now done both. This team will forever be remembered as the Class of 2025, the group that ended decades of heartbreak for a cricket-loving nation. For years, South Africa carried the burden of near misses and painful exits that would have broken many camps. Yet this team, built on resilience and honesty, continued to fight. They came to India with conviction and now head into the rest of their season with history behind them.
Bavuma now represents everything his name represents. Temba means hope in Xhosa. It was his grandmother who chose this first name and today he proudly bears its meaning. He gave his country hope at a time when it needed it most. Unbeaten in 12 Tests with 11 wins and 1 draw, a world title at Lord’s, and now a rare series victory in India. Only Hansie Cronje had done it before him in 2000 (the last South African captain to win in India). Bavuma now stands alongside him in the record books with an unbeaten record as Test captain. The Guwahati Test felt decided the moment Sen Muthusamy and Marco Jansen stitched up that crucial position on the second day. South Africa transformed 247 for 6 into 489 and then Jansen used the red pitch to generate a clumsy bounce and blast India in the first innings. They opted not to enforce the follow-on and instead knocked India out of the match. Some questioned the extension of the second innings as the team waited for Tristan Stubbs to reach his hundred, but that hardly mattered. The fifth day belonged to Simon Harmer who finished with six wickets and finished the job with calm authority. South Africa now look to the white-ball leg of the tour with the confidence of a world title, a historic away triumph and a captain who has reshaped the history of an entire cricketing nation. Temba Bavuma and his team are at the forefront of a new era in South African cricket.
