Bavuma admits Proteas cracked under pressure in 1st Test defeat

It was Bavuma’s first defeat as Test skipper, having himself struggled with the bat posting 3 and 1 in his two innings.

The rest of the batting order also found it hard to score, bar Aiden Markram and David Beddingham, who both showed a bit of resilience.

He vowed that they’ll give a better account of themselves in the second match in Gqeberha.

"There were a few soft dismissals and that includes me, but I definitely don't think that the guys threw caution to the wind and played recklessly because I just think there's a certain level of pressure that exists when you play Australia, and some guys were just not accustomed to that, but we should be better prepared for the second test."

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Bavuma admitted that he’s disappointed with the result and says both the batting and bowling performances were not good enough.

He hinted that there’ll be some stern words exchanged within the group.

"This is not the way we wanted to start the series and I still think the emotions are high after this defeat, so you want to wait for the emotions to settle before you get into some tough conversations about some obvious things we should've done better."

South Africa had Australia on the ropes in Day 1 of the Test, when they closed play with six of the visitors’ wickets down.

He says they should have applied more pressure then before it unraveled from the second day.

While the Proteas have not played red ball cricket in just under a year since beating India away in November 2025, Bavuma refused to make that an excuse for their lackluster display.