'Official Meme Material': Temba Bavuma Gives Another Viral Moment During ODI World Cup

Temba Bavuma-led South Africa faced one of the biggest upsets of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 falling victim to the Netherlands in a rain-hit fixture. When the Proteas were facing a batting collapse during the run chase, their skipper Bavuma was spotted sitting with a poker face inside the dressing room.

Evidently stunned by the on-field proceedings, Bavuma had wrapped himself in a white towel. He was one of the South African batters, who were brought down to their knees by the Netherlands’ lethal bowling.

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Bavuma’s reaction was captured on camera and the image soon became viral, triggering a meme fest on social media.

A fan urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to announce Bavuma as the “official meme material” of the World Cup 2023.

In a cheeky dig, a social media user said that Bavuma’s expression seemed quite similar to “Marathi moms in Mahabaleshwar after having morning tea.”

Another person penned a Hindi poem explaining the hilarious reaction of Temba Bavuma.

Here are some other reactions:

Since touching down in India, Bavuma has provided several hilarious moments.

Ahead of the ODI World Cup, all captains of the participating nations took part in a media interaction at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. When the event was underway, one frame showed the South African captain sleeping in a chair.

After the picture created a buzz, Bavuma came up with a clarification.

In a reply to the post, Bavuma said that he was not sleeping and it was the camera angle that portrayed him like that. “I blame the camera angle, I wasn’t sleeping,” he wrote.

Coming back to on-field developments, South Africa were looking invincible when they kicked off their journey at this World Cup with two resounding victories over Sri Lanka and Australia.

Their batting department appeared in swashbuckling form on both the occasions.

The Proteas, however, failed to replicate a similar performance against the Netherlands while chasing a total of 246 runs. Apart from David Miller and Keshav Maharaj, no South African batter managed to do anything impressive against the Dutch side.

South Africa eventually fell 38 runs short of the required total. In their next match, South Africa will face defending champions England on Saturday.