In the moments immediately after singing their team song, the joyous Proteas hugged and drank on the pitch at Lord’s, where six hours earlier they’d completed a stunning upset against Australia.
Dane Paterson, who didn’t play in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, but was close to doing so, lingered longer than the rest of the squad in the centre square. The hugs from teammates and the staff seemed warmer, tighter for him than for others. One member of the management cupped Paterson’s head in his hands, Kagiso Rabada whispered something in his ear, as did Lungi Ngidi.
It looked for all the world like Paterson was retiring. “No man, I’m still going to be playing,” he said the following evening at the first official celebratory engagement at the South African High Commissioner’s residence in London. “I just love these ouens.”
When Shukri Conrad was asked by UK broadcaster, Talksport, what made this Proteas team special, he said people should look at Paterson. “He might never play another Test again, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from his attitude in the changeroom. If anything encapsulates what this team is about, it’s Dane Paterson’s attitude after being left out having taken two five-fors back-to-back.”
Those two performances, one of which earned Paterson the player of the match award in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Gqeberha last December, were career highlights for a player who drily admits he’s “an old guy, who bowls 120km/h”. Even so, the 36-year-old would have been entitled to think he should have started last week’s final.
He’s in the middle of a contract with Middlesex, who play their home matches at Lord’s. His skillset is suited to English conditions, and those two five-wicket hauls — the second coming in that remarkable Boxing Day Test win against Pakistan — made it very difficult for the selectors to drop him.
But they did, with Ngidi chosen ahead of him. And Paterson didn’t sulk. Instead, he charged onto the field any time a teammate needed a drink, a towel or a change of gloves. He threw himself into analysis sessions, made a timely joke to break the tension or offered words of encouragement when needed.
“The hallmark of this team is its ‘one-ness’,” Conrad explained. Batting coach Ashwell Prince — who played 66 Tests, and once revealed he felt unwelcome in the Proteas team of his era — described the current side, led by Temba Bavuma, as “really tight”.
“This team's greatest strength is the unity that they have in this camp,” Prince said.
That transformation is notable. When Conrad was appointed head coach in January 2023, South Africa had just returned from Australia, having lost a three-match series 2-0. They would have been swept, were it not for rain in Sydney. But from that painful low, Conrad’s decisions about the players he wanted led to the unity that now exists.
It started with making Bavuma Test captain, and then restoring Aiden Markram to the opening spot after he’d been axed from the squad for that series in Australia. “Aiden Markram is South Africa's best opener and, while I’m in charge of selection, he will open the batting,” Conrad said at the time.
That level of conviction, after a 12-month period in which Markram had been shifted into different batting positions, provided clarity and confidence for a player who responded by playing arguably the greatest Test innings by a South African batter in the World Test Championship final.
Conrad made sure to treat Bavuma like a captain. “I was included in conversations about cricket that we would be playing in a month or two months’ time ... It felt a lot more that I was part of the decision-making process, of everything,” Bavuma told the Sunday Times in 2023. “At the beginning that wasn’t there. This time around it was and it has played a big factor in giving me confidence.”
The team that chased titles for so long now have a target on their backs.
That self-belief is evident in how Bavuma has played. Having gone seven years without making a Test century, he’s added three more since Conrad's appointment. He averaged 59.25 during the 2023/25 WTC cycle.
Leading from the front with the bat has made captaincy easier. Players look up to him. Ryan Rickelton spoke last summer about how Bavuma’s composure helped him to score his first Test hundred.
Bavuma’s second innings 66 in the WTC final, batting on one leg for the majority of it, will only galvanise the players' support for him. Markram mentioned the character of the captain, another trait that flows through this Proteas team.
“When someone needs to step up, when their backs are against the wall, like we were on that second day and we needed to get back in the game, Temba stepped up. Aiden’s knock ... the guys just find a way,” said Conrad.
The final result, a five-wicket win, looks comfortable, but it was anything but. The Australian side may not have had the same quality of batters as teams from previous eras, but their bowling unit, led by their captain Pat Cummins, is one of the great attacks that country has produced.
Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon each have more than 300 Test wickets, making their team the first in Test history to field three bowlers who’ve achieved that landmark in the same starting XI. They came into the match as overwhelming favourites, having not lost any of their last 13 series, which included being the defending World Test champions.
Until Bavuma and Markram’s partnership on the third day, Australia had been on top. They had a first innings lead of 74 runs, and even with Ngidi leading the fight back in the last session on day two with his nine-over spell, in which he picked up three wickets, Australia still ended the day leading by 218 runs.
That evening, Cummins said another “30 to 40 runs” from the tail-enders on the third morning would be enough for his team. They added 63.
But Markram’s majestic 136, Bavuma’s battling 66, their 147-run third-wicket partnership — and even Wiaan Mulder’s calming 27 — meant the Proteas successfully chased 282, tying the second highest total to win a Test match at Lord’s.
Conrad and Bavuma’s forthright approach has allowed for honesty with the players, something that wasn’t always apparent in previous generations — or even when Bavuma first started as captain of the One-Day team in 2021.
Players have been comfortable expressing publicly their frustration with being dropped, for instance. Kyle Verreynne acknowledged it helped him realise he needed to be more disciplined in 2023, Ngidi said he was angry with Conrad but came to understand what the coach wanted from him. Rickelton said there was “turmoil between us” after he was not selected, but that a tough conversation during a tour to the West Indies last year provided reassurance, because both he and Conrad were able to be forthright.
When Kagiso Rabada — the one bona fide superstar in this Proteas team — tested positive for cocaine, Conrad admitted he initially wanted to “klap him”. But the father in him also felt sympathy, and the importance of providing support. At the same time, there was a strong feeling, led by the coach, that Rabada needed to confront the incident and address the squad about it, which he did during the training camp in Arundel the week before the Lord’s final.
That level of candour is endearing, and only reinforces the tight bonds that exist among the players.
They will face a different kind of examination now. The team that chased titles for so long now have a target on their backs. Starting with Zimbabwe on June 28, opponents will have extra motivation because of the world championship status.
Pakistan, beaten by SA last summer to secure the Proteas a spot in the final, will be out for revenge later this year. After that, India will also have a point to prove. But the sense from this group is that they will be able to shift their mindset.
Conrad said this week the potential in the Proteas changeroom “scares me and it excites me”. He has helped unlock that potential through honesty and making players like Paterson — largely ignored by the establishment — feel that they belong. “Sometimes you go on gut feel, and I’ve got a big gut,” said Conrad.
That Proteas team song, sung with such gusto at Lord’s, contains the line: “To those before us and those to come, today tomorrow we’ll play as one.” This team encapsulates that line, like no other.
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