The question marks over Aiden Markram are surely gone

Aiden Markram seemingly has way more sympathy for those sceptics behind the claim before the Australian series that he had not yet proven himself as a Test opener than he did for the tourists’ bowling attack on Friday on the first day of the fourth Test at the Wanderers.

Markram stroked a masterful 152 off 216 balls, with 17 fours and a six, leading South Africa to a solid 313 for six at stumps.

His career-best score took his series tally to 443 runs at an average of 63.28 and he is the leading run-scorer despite being one of the most inexperienced batsmen involved.

Having plundered runs against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and scored 94 against India on a tricky Centurion pitch, he has now made big runs against the best bowlers in the world.

Having undoubtedly now cemented his place in the South African side, the 23-year-old is now ready to claim the destiny which always seemed ahead of him when he led the SA U19 team to Junior World Cup glory.

Except Markram is way too modest to even publicly contemplate such a notion.

“There were plenty of question marks about me before this series and rightly so. You always want to score runs against the big sides, and obviously I’m super-happy with how today has gone and the series so far, but people had the right to question me. It motivated me and fortunately it has worked out in this series. At this level, if you don’t find a way to make things happen then you will be exposed.

“Things can change very quickly in this game and I’m just trying to get better and better. I just try and get into my bubble and hopefully I’ve put the team in a good position. I was pretty down after the India ODI series so it’s nice to come across some runs, but most importantly to give the team a good start,” Markram said after the close of play on Friday.

Markram showed that he can adapt to differing situations while he is batting during his fourth century in his 10^th Test, which is testament to the maturity and clear head that so obviously complement the wonderful talents he is gifted with.

He was 53 not out at lunch, having ensured that Faf du Plessis’ decision to bat first on a Wanderers pitch that was dryer and browner than usual was not immediately undermined, and he had gone to 111 not out by tea, by which stage he was in the company of AB de Villiers, but South Africa were still well-placed on 177 for two.

A persistent Australian attack that never went away ensured, however, that the home batsmen had to graft, and both Markram and De Villiers had to dig deep after tea to ensure that the hard work done in the first two sessions was not undone.

“AB and I just tried to get a partnership going and when AB strolls down the pitch and says ‘this is tough, I don’t feel like I’m batting too well’ then you know it’s difficult. So we just tried to absorb as much as we could during that tricky period, to take it deep and bat for as long as possible. Once you were through that then you could score again, and he went from 30 to 69 quite quickly.

“It had a lot to do with the pitch, there was a lot of nibble throughout the day and you never feel in on a wicket like that. We knew that if a wicket fell then it could easily become one-two-three-four. We did lose a couple of wickets towards the end of the day, but Faf has instilled a ruthlessness in this team and there is still a lot for us to play for,” Markram said.

For more sport your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.