Aiden Markram’s magnificent hundred in the Newlands Test match between South Africa and India was among the toughest Test centuries of all time.

The writing was on the wall well inside the first session, when Mohammed Siraj (6-15) reduced South Africa to 45-7. At the stroke of lunch, they folded for 55, the lowest score by any side against India in Test cricket.

You do not come back in a Test match from a position like that, not even after India’s spectacular end-innings collapse restricted their lead to 98. Only three Indians – one more than the South African count – had made it to double figures.

There was still over an hour left in the day when Aiden Markram walked out with Dean Elgar, playing in his last Test match. Jasprit Bumrah, whose first-innings figures 2-25 barely reveal how threatening he had been, knew he would not have to bowl a long spell.

As Bumrah ran in with the wind, Markram went down on one knee and dispatched the fourth ball to the cover-point fence. It was not a shot batters back themselves to play on a pitch with steep bounce, but Markram did.

India got Elgar, Tony de Zorzi, Tristan Stubbs by stumps, and had South Africa at 62-3. Markram had made 36 of these runs, with six fours. He had probably realised that there was no point in trying to outlast the Indian bowlers.

On what CricViz rated as the most difficult day to bat since ball-tracking began, the ball bearing his name would arrive at any point.

According to our Expected Runs and Wickets model, the Expected Average of 18.0 on Day 1 at Newlands today is the lowest for any Day 1 of a Test match since the start of the ball tracking era. #SAvIND

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) January 3, 2024

Five overs into the second morning, Bumrah had taken out two more wickets and South Africa had not yet averted the innings defeat. In the sixth over, a ball from Mukesh Kumar – little more than medium pace – pitched on a good length and took off. It took a full-stretched leap from KL Rahul to prevent four byes. Markram still backed himself to drive Mukesh through cover two balls later.

Bumrah struck again, but it was not Markram. With Kagiso Rabada in, Markram knew he had to take on the attack. The lead was, after all, a puny 13.

Rohit Sharma had opened with Bumrah and Mukesh in the morning. He had probably wanted Siraj to replace Bumrah with the wind in his back, but Bumrah’s three-wicket spell had convinced them otherwise. He replaced Mukesh, who had gone wicketless in the morning, with Siraj.

Markram decided to not let Siraj settle down. He lofted him over mid-on, then square-cut him, then kept strike. He got a life at the other end when Rahul dropped an easy catch, off Bumrah. Yet again he retained the strike.

Rohit now faced a conundrum. While India’s finest, Bumrah is not the fittest of cricketers. He has struggled with injuries, and he needed a break after a seven-over spell.

At the same time, he had been bowling one of his finest spells – and that is saying something – while Siraj had not impressed while bowling into the wind. Rohit had to replace Bumrah with Siraj soon.

So Rohit summoned Prasidh Krishna. Markram took two fours and two sixes in the over, including a pull that disappeared over square-leg, and the ball had to be replaced. South Africa’s lead swelled past 50 against a side with four rank tail-enders.

With Rabada on strike, Rohit had little option but to give Bumrah an eighth over. It had been largely due to the onslaught from Markram, who picked up two fours to bring up his hundred.

Of course, it was too good to last. When Siraj eventually replaced Bumrah, Markram mistimed a shot and holed out for 106. All India had to do after that was get two wickets and score 79 runs.

Markram could not avert the inevitable, but he gave South Africa hope in a Test match where they should have had none.

Why Markram’s Newlands hundred will stand the test of time

Markram made 106 out of South Africa’s 176, which made it the third-lowest all-out team total to include a hundred, after New Zealand’s 159 (John Reid: 100) against England in 1962/63 and Sri Lanka’s 170 against New Zealand in 2006/07 (Kumar Sangakkara: 100*).

He also became one of the few batters to score more than 60 percent of an all-out total. In fact, Markram’s 60.22 percent contribution is the highest for South Africa

More significantly, no one else in the South African team made more than 12 – the lowest ‘second-highest’ individual score in an innings when a batter had got a hundred.

Of the 1096 Test Hundreds with ball tracking available, none have been tougher than Aiden Markram's at Newlands according to our Expected Runs and Wickets model, with an Expected Average of just 16.6 during his innings. #SAvIND

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) January 4, 2024

In a match where both teams struggled with the bat – a wicket every 20 balls is the best frequency in the history of Test cricket – Markram’s 106 was the only score in excess of fifty, and the only South African score across innings more than 15.

You do not come across an innings like that every day.

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