Friday 13th June 2025
The Ultimate Test, Day 3
Superstitions are an interesting phenomenon, and none more so than the fear of the number 13. I ponder what role today will play, as it’s Friday 13th, supposedly the unluckiest day on the calendar.
It is well known in cricketing circles that 87 is the Australian unlucky number. It is 13 short of 100. A fellow journalist explains the origin of this superstition. It involves 2 of Australia’s greatest players. Don Bradman, and a young Keith Miller. As a 10-year-old, Miller was so distressed when Bradman was dismissed for 87 at the MCG, that “The Devil’s Number” was born.
I’m not sure that the travelling horde of antipodean and sub-Saharan fans are too worried about the date. They are enjoying their day in the London sun. After a quiet and potentially frustrating morning session, lunch is taken with the fall of the stubborn Hazlewood’s wicket. South Africa needs 282 to lift the coveted Mace.
Could the team, widely regarded as the unluckiest in cricket, break their hoodoo on the day that is a triskaidekaphobic’s nightmare? It will be the equal second-highest successful run chase ever at Lord’s if they are to get there.
They are packed in at Lord’s today, possibly the best crowd of the match so far. It’s lunchtime and I loiter with an interviewer’s intent around the food stalls, the press of humanity around me. I stumble upon the SuperSport presenter, Lesego Pooe, and have a chat. Two fans who I spoke to earlier in the week stop me. We can do this, they say. From their lips to God’s ears, I think.
Reflecting on the interviews I conducted before the day’s play, they all point to the positive nature of the human spirit. The theme is the same, whether I am engaging with beer-wielding Australians, a visiting RCB supporter or families of expat South Africans. The enthusiasm is infectious, the anticipation of a titanic contest, compelling.
While enjoying the ample and delicious lunch in the Media Centre, recent ICC Hall of Fame inductee Matthew Hayden is working for television in front of the Compton stand. He resembles a cowboy in his Cattleman hat. A larger-than-life character, one of many in the wonderful world of cricket.
This reminds me of cricket’s place in the real world. Before the day’s play, there is a minute’s silence for the victims of the Ahmedabad air disaster. Life and cricket have to go on, the reminder being the sight of the inexorable stream of airliners, gliding across the southern sky on approach to Heathrow Airport.
Stationed outside the North Gate this morning, an American airline crew member asks me what all the people are doing here! I try to explain that this is THE biggest thing in cricket. Perhaps I should have told him it’s the World Series of Cricket…
It’s after tea, and a hamstring-strained Bavuma is gutsing it out with the remarkable Aiden Markram to the strains of “Ooooh Temba Bavuma”, belted out from the green and gold in the Compton stand. He gets to his 50, it’s rousing, inspiring, and the stuff of goosebumps. My WhatsApp is buzzing with messages from home. “I can’t watch”, “I’m so nervous”, “it’s not over ‘til it’s over”, “I won’t get excited until there are 50 runs to win!” There are tears as Markram reaches a personal milestone, knowing that the job is not yet done. The tension can be cut with a knife. Tension is being worn by the crowd and those seated in the spaceship, hovering above the Nursery End.
Much will be written tonight, and a lot has been said of this young group of Proteas. What is unmistakable is that the influence of coach Shukri Conrad is tattooed on every one of them. Unity, Clarity, Belief.
Day 4 and their date with history beckons.
