Stats leave little doubt: Bavuma's entered new domain

Up to late January (and even a little beyond it) you could have been excused for believing Temba Bavuma’s broad international batting career was going to be defined more by a “valuable cameos” trend than strikingly bulky scores.

A gritty customer who is good to have in a crisis … it almost seems a polite, cliched, indirect way of describing someone less than renowned for marathon, healthily greedy occupation of the crease.

But well into his 33rd year (the dual SA Test and one-day international skipper has his next birthday in May), Bavuma is suddenly forcing a sharp rethink to that -- once-fitting, it is true – summation of his qualities.

It is almost as if he has palpably crossed a personal, mental Rubicon over the course of several memorable weeks, which began when he lashed 109 against defending World Cup champions England at better than a run a ball in a Bloemfontein ODI on 29 January.

At the time, it still seemed a reasonably isolated big ‘un from him, coming as it did after seven prior innings in the format without reaching even 40 since last recorded century against India at Paarl in January last year.

But like the proverbial London bus – none for half an hour, then three in a row – Bavuma is suddenly on a heart-warming (as much for him as his long-suffering disciples) purple patch for the national cause.

Saturday’s near-standalone resistance to an upset-engineering West Indies side in the second (though effectively first) ODI at Buffalo Park represented the scurrying right-hander’s third international ton in seven visits to the crease for the Proteas.

It was his second in three contests of the 50-overs kind, but also a very rapid follow-up to his much-publicised, long overdue second Test-level century at the Wanderers