Aiden Markram has made headlines in recent years. Having led South Africa to the Under-19 World Cup in 2014, the right-handed batsman made his debut for the senior team and left his mark as well. While Markram has been a part of the Test team also, his class in the T20 format came to the limelight only a couple of years ago.
He has been in good form so far in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. In five matches, he smashed 162 runs with the average and strike rate of 54.00 and 145.95 respectively. He smashed an unbeaten 52 off 25 balls where South Africa registered a 10-run win. However, a tweet of Virat Kohli regarding Markram went viral.
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“Aiden Markram is a delight to watch!” Kohli had tweeted this in March 2018 when Australia had toured South Africa for a four-match Test series. Markram had played some beautiful knocks during the series and Virat Kohli was impressed with that.
Aiden Markram is a delight to watch!
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 24, 2018
However, after the game, South African captain Temba Bavuma said: “The win was important. Bitter-sweet end for us. We achieved what we wanted to – win the game but just couldn’t win it big enough. At the start of the tournament, that (net run rate) was never a factor for us, we just wanted to win games. It’s always tough to make up for that at the back end, especially against a team like England.”
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Rassie van der Dussen, the Player of the Match said: “It (the award) doesn’t mean too much in the context, but we knew we had to get a good score. We were asking too much from the bowlers to defend that score in order to get into the semis. At the end of the day, it was a good performance, beating a good side. It’s a type of a wicket, where the new batters needed time to get in, you saw that in their innings when they lost wickets. So Markram and I tried to get in and get a good total. The three venues are so different. The match against Bangladesh, the pitch was different, it was difficult to bat there. Today it kept low, from the batting point of view it has been quite a challenge to adjust to the three venues. The batting units who have adapted the quickest have been the most successful.”
