Temba Bavuma brings ‘hope’ to life as South Africa crush India for stunning 2-0 series win | Cricket News
South Africa completed a stunning 408 run victory over India in the second Test at Guwahati to seal a 2 0 clean sweep and close out one of their greatest cricketing years. Earlier in June they defeated Australia to win the World Test Championship, finally breaking a 27 year wait for an ICC trophy. No South African captain had lifted a global 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 sides. Yet this team, built on resilience and honesty, kept fighting. They came to India with belief and now walk into the rest of their season with history behind them.
Bavuma has come to represent everything his name stands for. Temba means hope in Xhosa. His grandmother chose the name and today he carries its meaning with pride. He has given his country hope at a time when it was needed most. Unbeaten in 12 Tests with 11 victories and 1 draw, a world title at Lord’s, and now a rare series win in India. Only Hansie Cronje had done it before him in 2000 (the last South African captain to win in India). Bavuma now stands beside 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 that crucial stand on day two. South Africa turned 247 for 6 into 489, then Jansen used the red soil pitch to generate awkward bounce and blow India away in the first innings. They chose not to enforce the follow on and instead batted India out of the match. Some questioned the extended second innings as the team waited for Tristan Stubbs to reach a hundred, but it hardly mattered. The fifth day belonged to Simon Harmer who finished with six wickets and completed the job with calm authority. South Africa now look ahead to the white ball leg of the tour carrying the confidence of a world title, a historic away triumph and a captain who has reshaped the story of an entire cricket nation. Temba Bavuma and his team stand at the front of a new era in South African cricket.
