Bedingham stakes claim for Proteas No 3 spot with century for WP - TimesLIVE
Bat dominated ball on the opening day of First Class Series fixtures on Thursday, with the stroke-filled display from David Bedingham, at Newlands, garnering the most interest.
With Proteas head coach Shukri Conrad watching, Bedingham scored 129 in an innings laced with 18 boundaries for Western Province against the Dolphins.
It came with Bedingham batting at No 3, one spot higher than is usually the case for him and perhaps an indication about where Conrad wants to use him in the Test side.
Bedingham batted fluently against a generous attack that included the talented young pace duo of Nqobani Mokoena and Tristan Luus, Okuhle Cele fresh off a stint with the SA A side, Jason Smith and experienced off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen.
Only the latter was able to provide consistent control for a Dolphins unit that conceded 421 against the Titans last week.
But that wouldn’t have mattered to Bedingham. Fresh off a successful season in England, where he helped Durham achieve promotion to Division 1 in the County Championship after scoring more than 1,000 runs, he is keen to re-establish himself in the Proteas Test team.
The 32-year-old has offered fleeting glimpses of his talent in the 15 Tests he’s featured in, scoring one century in New Zealand and four half-centuries.
His last Test was in Bulawayo 14 months ago, and he played no part in the four Tests in Pakistan and India.
The No 3 position is one of those that Conrad is looking for someone to fill, having tried various options since taking over in 2022. Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs and last year Wiaan Mulder have all batted there with varying degrees of success, although it is clear that Conrad is happy to be flexible about who fills that spot.
That is a break with his tradition which has held that the best batters fill the role.
Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla were long-time occupiers of the No 3 position for the Proteas.
Bedingham reached 50 off 44 balls, taking advantage of a plethora of short-pitched bowling from Luus in particular, after WP’s openers, Jiveshan Pillay and Sinalo Gobeni, had played watchfully in the first session.
The scoring rate increased after lunch with Bedingham dominant and dragging Pillay along with him.
Bedingham unleashed a lovely cover drive off Subrayen to reach his century off 113 balls, continuing a rich run of form in 2026 that has already seen him make five hundreds and average 73.29 for Durham. Bedingham was eventually out an hour before stumps, when he was caught in the covers by Luus off Mokoena.
There was another century for a No 3 batter in Paarl, where North West’s Diego Rosier backed up last week’s 130 against the Knights with another century against Boland. North West batted at close to five an over all day, surging past 400 well before the close.
The first day’s play in the other two matches between the Titans and Warriors in Gqeberha and the Knights and Lions in Bloemfontein, were washed out due to rain.
