It was over. His 207-ball vigil had come to an end. His 136 runs had ensured that the victory he and his nation had yearned for since always was one big shot away. And yet, his feet were fixed in cement on cricket’s most hallowed soil.

You see, Markram kept thinking about the 2024 T20 World Cup final, which South Africa lost to India. Markram didn't want to get out this time. He wanted to stay till the very end.

However, that wasn't to be. Travis Head spoiled that picture-perfect painting with a splendid catch.

Despite knowing that the era-defining victory is all but a surety from there on, Markram walked as slowly as possible to the dressing room as a houseful Lord's cricket ground stood up and bowed to his grit and gumption.

He had begun the game with a zero and was now leaving it as a national hero. And yet, Markram looked devastated while returning back to the pavilion. That is how much it meant to him to stay till the very end, to ensure no mishaps happen this time, and to ensure that the Chokers' perception didn't stop them from being champions this time.

In a battle of belief vs perception, the Proteas' self-belief had finally triumphed over their image of being cricket’s biggest chokers. Now, they were the Champions of Test cricket.

***

Temba Bavuma just couldn’t move.

Others around him were feeling light and jumping in jubilation on the Lord’s balcony after the generational curse had been lifted off their shoulders. But the South African skipper had his head down in his hands. Then, just a few minutes after Markram made his way back to the dressing room, Bavuma’s fist was raised as he finally showed the emotions of victory on his face to the thousands gathered to witness it.

What he had hoped for before the beginning of the game had turned into reality. And he and his team had achieved that by giving it their all on the field in a game which was as much an anti-choke as possible, because South Africa kept coming back in the game.

After a really poor batting display in the first innings, where they folded for just 138, they roared back into the game in the second innings with Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi blowing away the Australian batting. Fielding was top-notch, as the close-in fielders kept throwing themselves around to stop measly singles.

And yet, until the last innings, they by no means looked ahead in the game. That’s when Bavuma defied perceptions to bat out of his skin and notch up the most crucial partnership of his Test career so far, along with Markram, that brought South Africa within touching distance of the trophy.

People might forget that Bavuma was the same man who was set up to fail by the South African board in a way. He was made T20I skipper when he wasn’t even deserving of a place in the side, and those perceptions from the shortest format followed him around in the ODI and Test formats, where he was clearly much better. It was said that the only reason he’s even in the team across formats is the fact that he’s Black and was there as a quota player.

Bavuma’s reply to all those words came through action. Since becoming the Test skipper, he has scored at an average of 56.94! And just to rub more salt on the trolls' wounds, he is yet to lose a game as a Test skipper.

In the World Test Championship (WTC), he batted for the majority of his 134-ball innings on a single fully functioning leg, as he limped for every single run. He ended up with 66 of them, the second most after Markram.

All of this came for Bavuma after being body shamed and suffering racist trolls in and out of South Africa for months!

His teammates understood his arc. They saw him go through all those hardships. And that’s why they kept singing “Oh Temba Bavuma” at the top of their voice when he entered the dressing room with the mace in his hands. That’s why during the victory lap, when his one hand was carrying his son and the other the WTC mace, they let him have the limelight as he probably told junior Temba, “Look son, everything the light touches is our kingdom.”

And still, Bavuma knew that this victory was of more than just the 11 who bowled, batted and fielded. It was the win of a nation that had defied history to reach there. Bavuma understood the symbolism of him, a Black man, being the first South African skipper to win a major world title in cricket. He understood how his entire existence defies stereotypes, as despite Black batters being rare in South African cricket, he became one of their best on merit and then led them to a glory they could never achieve before him.

That’s why when he got a moment to speak on the win, he didn’t fail to mention that despite the divided society of his nation, they’ll celebrate his and his team’s victory as one. And that’s what every South African did.

It's because this wasn’t just a victory of Bavuma and his men, but also of the ones who came before them and play in the other Proteas team, the ones who gave South Africa their unique cricket culture — the Basil D’Oliveras, the Clive Rices, The Pollocks, The Smiths, The Kallis’, The Steyns, The Ntinis, The de Villiers, The Marizanne Kapps, The Du Plessis, The Shabnim Ismails and every single cricketer who played for the rainbow nation with pride.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

The above quote from Nelson Mandela's autobiography encapsulates his vision for a free and democratic South Africa where individual freedom is intimately linked with the well-being and freedom of others.

Mandela would have been proud of the way Bavuma carried himself yesterday. Not every day you have a Black man, representative of the majority population in the country, leading the entire nation to victory in a sport that was, by and large, for the Whites in a country scorched by Apartheid for decades.

That’s when Bavuma, knowingly or unknowingly, became the ‘Kolisi of Cricket’.

Because that’s what South Africa’s Rugby skipper Siya Kolisi has managed to do in his sport as well, and made the entire nation root for his team irrespective of the colour of their skin.

Considering the struggles for freedom in South Africa and the social fissures that exist in their society that’s still emerging out of the dark days of Apartheid, it's a remarkable moment in their history as two Sportsmen from the Black community have brought the nation together years after ‘Madiba’s’ long walk to freedom ended.

Bavuma and his team, just like Kolisi and his team, became more than just a bunch of athletes winning sporting glory. They showed that no matter the deep social fissures that still affect South Africans every day, a different future is possible. They showed that the troubled history of a nation will bow to the aspirations of its people, no matter the narrative run against them by the agenda-driven demagogues.

They showed that the future of the Rainbow Nation won’t be dimmed by the gloomy days of its past or the perceptions that affect its present, on the cricket field or outside of it.