South African opener Aiden Markram's wife couldn't control her emotions as she applauded with pride after his innings ended on 136 on day four of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Lord's Cricket Ground. The right-handed batter also received a standing ovation from the crowd as he was seen trudging off the ground.
The dismissal occurred off the bowling off Josh Hazlewood, who took the new ball as Pat Cummins took it right after it was available. While Markram hit a boundary off the first ball of the innings, he tried on to smash another boundary through the leg side and Travis Head dived to take the catch.
Having batted over 300 minutes, the right-handed batter batted for 207 deliveries and put on a match-defining partnership of 147.
"We certainly know he is someone for the big occasion" - Aiden Markram
Speaking at the press conference after the day's play, batting coach Ashwell Prince says they didn't anticipate any less from Markram, labelling him as the man for big occasion. Prince said, as quoted by SMH:
"We certainly know he is someone for the big occasion, of that there is no doubt. We know what he’s capable of. As soon as Aiden and Temba came up the stairs, the first thing [coach Shukri Conrad] said was ‘guys, you do the same as you do every night, don’t change a thing, we’ll come in and have the same warmups, the same processes."
Along with Markram, Kagiso Rabada played a brilliant hand by taking 9 wickets in the match.
