‘I try to emulate his technique’: Temba Bavuma reveals Sachin Tendulkar’s influence after career best 179

Sachin Tendulkar and Temba Bavuma (Agency Image) South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has revealed how great batsman Sachin Tendulkar influenced his technique and explained how he tried to adapt the Indian legend’s approach to suit his own game.Bavuma checked in after hitting a career-best 179 against Australia in the second Test at St George’s Park, helping South Africa recover from 110/6 to a declared post of 425/9.When asked about the similarities between his technique and that of Tendulkar, one of his heroes, Bavuma said he made a conscious effort to incorporate aspects of the former India batsman’s approach, particularly his movement and ability to play the ball close to the body.“Yeah, I mean, I try to emulate his technique. I mean, obviously, I’m not a big guy. I’m not really going to take any big steps. I try to be efficient in terms of my movement. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. But I think it generally works for me. I try to play the ball as close to my body as possible,” Bavuma said.The South Africa captain scored 179 off 334 balls, his highest Test score and surpassing his previous best of 172 against the West Indies in 2023. He admitted the innings was particularly satisfying given his recent struggles to find a rhythm.“Yeah, definitely one of my better ones. I think if I look at the situation in the game, and I think personally, I’ve been in a lot of those situations, I’ve come on early, I’ve been trying to manage to get to 50 or 60, but I think it was nice and being able to push it further and make it count,” he said.Bavuma also spoke about the challenge of facing a formidable Australian bowling attack that includes several highly-rated Test bowlers. Having failed to make a significant contribution to the first test, he wanted to rectify that.“So, I mean, we got a taste of it in the first Test and we kind of knew what to expect. So I think when I obviously couldn’t contribute from the first Test and then I came into the second Test, I think that was a big thing that was on my mind. But yeah, I was happy to make a good contribution for the team,” he said.The 36-year-old credited his work in the nets with helping him rediscover his touch after a tough run through the ODI series and the first Test.“I think I just didn’t have any rhythm to be honest with you. I was struggling a bit with rhythm in the ODI series, even coming into the first Test. So I think it was just a case of just trying to find the feel. It can be a bit tricky when you haven’t played for months. Yeah, I was just trying to get into the nets and just trying to find the feel that I had last year,” Bavuma said.Bavum’s innings was supported by Marco Jansen’s 85 and Simon Harmer’s 82, the latter adding 183 runs with the captaincy. Praising their contributions, Bavuma said both batsmen played an important role in turning the innings around.“Very gutsy innings from him,” Bavuma said of Jansen, while praising Harmer for showing “a lot of application” and felt the all-rounder was unlucky to miss out on a century.As South Africa battled back into the contest, Bavuma said the batting unit had done its part and the onus now rested on the bowlers.