Of the 366 men who have played 464 Tests for South Africa, 73 have scored centuries - 2,347 between them. That's a slew of numbers, so let's distill them to one: few of those hundreds are as important as the 110 David Bedingham made at Seddon Park on Thursday.
It gave a team of no-hopers hope. It confounded the prevailing narrative. It made South Africans waking up early to check the score ensure they weren't still dreaming.
"When we are playing, they're sleeping," Bedingham told a press conference when he was asked whether players in South Africa had been in touch to offer advice or feedback. In other circumstances it would have been a strange question. Not this time. Had, Bedingham wasn't quite asked, he heard from the guys who should be in New Zealand - and couldn't make the trip because they had to play in the SA20.
Bedingham had the good grace not to point out that he had earned the right to be there, regardless of the problems caused by the scheduling clash. He played in both Tests against India in December and January, scoring 56 on debut in South Africa's innings victory in Centurion. Keegan Petersen and Zubayr Hamza were also in that squad, but Petersen was dropped after making two out of 408 in the first Test and Hamza didn't feature in either match.
Does that make Bedingham the only first-choice player among the 15 South Africans in New Zealand? By the logic above, yes. But that would be an unnecessary cruelty to inflict on people who have been through a lot in the cause of giving of their best.
New Zealand's 281-run win in Mount Maunganui last week - which would surely have been by an innings had Tim Southee enforced the follow-on after South Africa had been dismissed 349 runs behind on the first innings - raised fears that an even heavier defeat awaited in Hamilton. That that has not transpired can be attributed, in broad strokes, to a less docile pitch, Dane Piedt's 5/85 on Wednesday, and Bedingham's innings on Thursday.
"I play a positive brand of cricket," Bedingham said. "When they had attacking fields there was always the opportunity to score. So I tried to score and I'm thankful and lucky that it worked.
"I was probably a lot smarter than in the first Test, when I was trying to go for everything. In this innings I was more selective. I'm glad I got through it."
Bedingham established himself in both innings at Bay Oval, facing 58 balls for 32 and 96 for 87 - South Africa's only score of 50 or more in the match. But it needed more than that to keep them in the game. The stand of 44 Bedingham shared with Hamza was the first innings' biggest. In the second dig, Raynard van Tonder and Hamza put on 63 and Bedingham and Petersen added 105.
This time, Ruan de Swardt made 64 and shared 77 with Shaun von Berg in the first innings. In the second innings, Hamza and Bedingham put on 65 before Hamza and Petersen shared 98.
Thus Bedingham has been South Africa's batting fulcrum in both Tests, a role he played in the classical manner. He stroked more than half of his runs through the off side, hitting 10 of his dozen runs through there and sending seven of them square of the pitch.
That's not the only old-fashioned aspect of Bedingham's game. Having heard from Shukri Conrad that he was being considered for the tour, Bedingham took his name out of the SA20 draft. "I don't want to look back at not throwing my name in the draft," he said on Thursday. "I just hope this innings can win us a game and draw the series."
If that doesn't happen New Zealand will beat South Africa in a Test series for the first time in a history that stretches back 17 rubbers to February and March 1932. That prospect was receding when the visitors reached 202/4 after tea on Thursday with Bedingham and Petersen looking settled at the crease. But, with Will O'Rourke taking 5/34 for match figures of 9/93 - the latter a New Zealand record - both were dismissed in a slide of 6/33 that cut a lead that should have topped 350 to 266.
Bedingham looked distraught after he carved a catch to gully off O'Rourke, but he had done his bit in the latest chapter of a long and winding career. In December 2016 he had to be extracted from the wreck of a crashed car, which left him with severe injuries to his jaw, hands and legs that took him out of the game for three days short of a year. From August 2020 he has been playing for second-division Durham as a local by dint of his UK passport; not to try and qualify for England but with a view to securing a British passport. And because he was not securing regular playing slots in South Africa.
"Two years ago I would never have expected to be here, so a lot of thanks goes to Shuks for showing confidence in me and giving me an opportunity to play and score some runs," Bedingham said. His time in England had "allowed me to play in different conditions, against different bowlers. The whole experience, learning a new culture, that all helps."
The Hamilton Test is only Bedingham's fourth, but it is his 90th first-class match. That lends him licence to offer a view on how the last two days could pan out after the third ended with Dane Piedt trapping Devon Conway in front with New Zealand needing 227 more runs to make history. "That we got Conway probably makes us even. Piedtie and the seamers and Shaun have enough in the tank to take nine more wickets."
Copyright © Batbricks7© 2020