Africa-Press – South-Africa. Was Aiden Markram’s 136 at Lord’s, the greatest innings by a South African player?
Graeme Smith’s 154 not out against England at Edgbaston in 2008 that won a series for South Africa in that country for the first time in 43 years has generally been regarded as the greatest innings by a Proteas batter.
Other notable mentions would include Hashim Amla’s 311 at the Oval in 2012, AB de Villiers’ 126 against Australia at St George’s Park in 2018, while the great Jacques Kallis made 162 out of a total of 332 against a rampant England attack at Kingsmead in 2004, to help the Proteas to a draw.
De Villiers and Smith, who were at Lord’s to witness Markram’s magnificence first-hand that secured the Proteas’ five-wicket victory against Australia in the World Test Championship final, are likely to happily accept being pushed down the list. Given the occasion, the opposition and the state of the match when Markram started the innings, it is undoubtedly one of the great knocks seen at Lord’s.
Only three times before Markram’s knock has that historic venue witnessed a match-winning century in the final innings of a Test.
Even in its aftermath, with a gold winners medal around his neck, Markram found it difficult to explain how he’d managed to perform the way he did. “I never really felt ‘in,’” he said.
“You’ve got quality bowlers coming at you the whole time and it just never stops and you never really catch a break. It never felt that I clicked, but it was more just spending time and batting with intensity, knowing that the runs would come. But if I was there, that’s the most important thing. The longer we build partnerships, the closer we get. Once you get close, you can start formulating how you want to tick them off. So that was it, but nothing really stood out,” Markram explained.
He was at the crease for 383 minutes, faced 207 balls and hit 14 fours. Only one of those was a false stroke, an outside edge that went between the Australian wicket keeper Alex Carey and first slip. Otherwise it was chanceless.
There were crisply struck drives, delicate late cuts, coaching manual straight drives, and a couple of muscular pulls.
Markram joined a select club of batters who’ve made at least three centuries in the fourth innings of Test matches. Only Graeme Smith with four has more for the Proteas. In addition his record against Australia is remarkable — he averages 61.60 against them and has scored three of his eight Test centuries, against Pat Cummins’ team.
“Both teams play the game in a similar way, and it brings out the best in us. It’s just competition and two teams that really don’t have any interest in losing. So I think it brings out the best in a lot of cricketers and not just myself, but quite a few of the players in their team and in our team.”
Australia’s players were generous in the outpouring of respect they had for Markram’s efforts, with all of them running to shake his hand or pat him on the back after he was dismissed with South Africa needing six runs to win.
Cummins, though upset at not adding to Australia’s bulging trophy cabinet, also appreciated Markram’s efforts. “A few of us have played alongside him in IPL and he’s very well respected, he’s a good man, is Aiden,” said the Australia captain.
“He batted well, he kept the scoreboard ticking over as well, he made it look pretty easy out there and just built a big innings. Yeah, we threw a fair bit at him but he had an answer for everything.”
As much as Markram’s overall international statistics may be disappointing, if his best performances come in matches and at moments that matter, then the averages and strike rates are not important.
“I’m not here to chase numbers and stats and things like that. I really just want to win stuff for South Africa now,” he said.
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