Victorious Temba Bavuma clocked these numbers in WTC 2023-25
What's the story
South Africa have claimed their first ICC World Test Championship (WTC) title, having recently defeated Australia in a high-voltage at Lord's.
The victory marks a historic moment in South African cricket, ending a 27-year wait for an ICC trophy.
Temba Bavuma was appointed SA's Test captain ahead of the 2023-25 WTC cycle and his leadership has been instrumental in this achievement.
Here we decode his brilliance with the bat in the recently-concluded WTC edition.
Batting performance
Joint-highest run-getter for SA
Bavuma put up a valiant batting performance in the fourth innings of the final against Australia.
Despite suffering from a hamstring injury, Bavuma showed incredible determination and scored a brilliant 66 as SA chased down 282.
He made 36 runs in SA's first innings. These knocks meant Bavuma finished as SA's joint-highest run-scorer in this cycle, having mustered 711 runs from eight games.
David Bedingham also managed 711 runs.
Stats
Second-best average in this cycle
As per ESPNcricinfo, Bavuma's average of 59.25 was the second-best among 153 batters who played at least five innings.
He is only behind Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis, who clocked an average of 62.38.
Meanwhile, Bavuma's tally includes five fifties and two tons as 113 was his best score.
No other batter with at least 300 runs as captain in this cycle averaged even 40.
Leadership impact
Captain Bavuma leads from the front
Bavuma's captaincy has also been crucial to South Africa's success.
He now shares the record for most wins (9) in their first 10 Tests as captain with England's Percy Chapman.
Notably, SA had clinched just one of their first five Tests in this cycle before winning seven on the bounce.
The win in the final made SA the first team to win eight matches on a bounce in WTC history.
Partnerships
Brilliant with partnerships
Centurion Aiden Markram and Bavuma added 147 runs for the third wicket in the fourth innings of the WTC final.
This is the third-highest 4th innings stand for a visiting pair at Lord's. Bavuma was brilliant with partnerships throughout the cycle.
The average stand where Bavuma was one of the partners was 60.35 runs - the best for any batter who was part of at least ten partnerships in this cycle.
Career stats
Most runs for SA in WTC history
With his brilliance in the final, Bavuma has raced to 1,992 runs across 28 WTC Tests at an average of 44.26.
He narrowly missed out on the 2,000-run mark. The veteran's tally includes three centuries and 12 fifties.
No other SA batter with 500-plus WTC runs averages 40-plus.
The game saw Bavuma go past Dean Elgar (1,935) as SA's leading run-getter in WTC history.