Mysterious elbow injury rules Bavuma out of Four-Day final

Temba Bavuma’s late withdrawal from the Lions team that will face the Titans in the final of the Four-Day Series due to start at the Wanderers on Thursday caught the Gauteng union’s management by surprise. 

Bavuma was due to play for the Lions, but after journeying to Cape Town after the side’s last match in Bloemfontein, which was washed out, he informed the union he wouldn’t be available for the final because of an elbow injury late on Wednesday. 

The Lions are still awaiting word on the precise nature of the injury — whether it is the same one he suffered in Abu Dhabi last year and which subsequently kept him out of the Proteas' Test series in Bangladesh, or a new ailment. 

Bavuma’s cautious approach is understandable given that in two months' time he will lead the Proteas in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s but the Lions are perturbed by how late they were notified. His absence also takes some of the gloss off the last match of the 2024-25 season.

The start of the match has also been delayed because of a wet outfield. The area causing the umpires the most concern was in line with the bowlers’ run-ups at the Corlett Drive End. There are also large areas at the south eastern part of the ground — in front of the Taverners Stand — that are extremely wet. 

The venue has had 135mm of rain in the past week, which has raised the water table on the outfield and made drainage extremely challenging.

The match was due to begin at 10am, but despite bright sunshine, the umpires conducted an inspection at 11am, with another taking place at 1pm and a tentative start time of 2pm being considered. 

The Lions’ last three round-robin matches were all severely hampered by rain. They were only able to play about two days of cricket in each of the games against Boland and the Dolphins and then all four days against the Knights were washed out in Bloemfontein. 

That outcome consigned the Knights to relegation to Division 2.   

The Lions finished top of the table, winning three of their seven matches, all of those victories coming in the first half of the competition last November. The Titans squeezed into second place ahead of the Dolphins after drawing against Boland last week. The Dolphins lost to the Warriors in Gqeberha.