Temba Bavuma didn’t look like a man who had been batting for three days when he sat down behind the microphones for a press conference at St George’s Park on Tuesday (October 20). Maybe because he hadn’t.

Bavuma had indeed taken guard on Sunday and been dismissed on Tuesday. But rain and a wet outfield took 137 overs out of the first two days of the second Test between South Africa and Australia. So it’s better to think in terms of hours: Bavuma batted for more than nine of them and faced 334 balls and hit 18 fours and a six for his career-best 179, his fifth Test century. In the process he took his team from 12 for 2 to a declaration at 425 for 9. Australia slipped to 3 for 1 before bad light ended play after four overs of their reply.

“Everything was in the bowlers’ favour [when he came to the crease]; the overheads, the pitch,” Bavuma told a press conference. “We had lost two early wickets.”

He said that without surprise. Perhaps because, as South Africa’s firefighter-in-chief, he has been here and done that often.

“I’ve found myself in those situations a number of times. It seems to bring out the best in me. From an approach point of view it wasn’t any different. I’ve always gone about it like that - got myself stuck in.

“I pride myself on getting the team into a competitive position. What was different, more from a personal point of view, was that this time I was able to put up a score.”

Bavuma had help from Marco Jansen, with whom he shared 132, and Simon Harmer, who helped him put on 183 - an eight-wicket record for South Africa.

“Marco took the bowlers on,” Bavuma said. “He was able to find the middle of the bat and the gaps in the field. Simon applied himself. They put a high price on their wickets.”

Batting conditions, which were difficult on Sunday and Monday, seemed to lose spice on Tuesday. Bavuma disagreed: “I wouldn’t say it was easier to bat. From a mindset point of view, for me nothing really changed. I was always trying to be as tight as I could and trying to hit the ball as straight as I could. And to extend that gameplan for as long as I could.

“I never really felt in. Every now and then a ball would of jump off a length or nip around. But once the ball got a bit soft you did feel a little bit more comfortable.”

Now what? There are two days left in the match but the first innings have yet to be completed.

“If we’re going to get on the right side of the result we’re going to have to spend the majority of those two days in the field,” Bavuma said. “Mentally for us we need to prepare for that overnight. There’s still something in the pitch, especially with that new ball.

“If we can get the ball in the right place for a considerable amount of time anything can happen. We want to go for the win and we’ll do as much as we can to bring that to life.”

At 12 for 2 and 97 for 5 South Africa looked dead and buried. Worse, they seemed on their way to a series defeat: Australia won the first Test by 214 runs at Kingsmead last Tuesday. And here they are, talking about bringing things to life. There’s a long way to go before anything comes of all this; Australia’s batting is unlikely to go quietly and there could be more weather interruptions ahead. But the game came a long way on Tuesday.

Bavuma, Jansen and Harmer were central to that happening. But none more so than Bavuma.