Proteas aim to remain calm ahead of a historic title chase

South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince believes the team is under no pressure despite being on the brink of breaking a long-standing ICC title drought.

As Day 3 of the Ultimate Test came to a close, South Africa needed just 69 more runs to secure the ICC World Test Championship crown — their first ICC men's title since 1998.

Prince emphasised that the team is in no hurry to finish the game, and are focused and composed as they edge closer to a historic victory.

"One of the things we said before the run chase was that the game will finish when it finishes, whether that is tomorrow at lunchtime or whatever time, the end of the match will take care of itself," Prince said.

"For us, the most important thing is to remain in the moment. Stay in the moment. And obviously, from a batting point of view, that means play one ball at a time."

Prince was full of praise for South Africa’s two stars of the day — Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma.

The pair has stitched together a 143-run unbeaten partnership, firmly tilting the game in Proteas’ favour as they edge closer to a famous win at Lord's.

"We certainly know that he's someone for the big occasion," Prince said of Markram.

"When I talk about his ability to play big innings — albeit in a losing cause at Newlands on a very, very difficult pitch — he played an unbelievable innings there, where everybody else was really struggling.

"And he got a hundred on that surface. And so we know what he's capable of." said Prince on Markram who ended the day unbeaten at 102.

Praise was also heaped on skipper Bavuma for displaying fighting spirit, as he battled through injury to stay at the crease and remain unbeaten on 65.

"Well, it says a lot. You know, it's not done yet. But as you say, he's had to fight throughout his career. And this could be a defining moment for his career, I believe." said Prince

South Africa had a shaky start to their day. The Proteas needed just two wickets to wrap up the Australian innings, but after removing Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood put on a brilliant rearguard effort, adding 59 valuable runs for the final wicket.

Despite the first session clearly going in Australia's favour, Prince emphasised that he only saw positives for his own batters from the way the pitch played and the conditions unfolded.

"There are certain signs when you're sitting and watching the game that those types of things might be positive for us. Obviously, in terms of trying to wrap up the Australian tail, there's a little bit of frustration with the ball dropping short all the time of the slip cordon. But if you reverse that, it might happen the same when we bat," Prince said.

"We try and stick to the positives as much as we can. And then again, this morning when you watch their tail-enders sort of sticking, there are signs there that the stats suggest that Day Three might be the best for batting. And they were pretty comfortable — numbers 9, 10, and 11 — up against a pretty good bowling attack. And with the sun out, you know, you look for certain positives. The sun's out, the nicks aren't carrying to the slip cordon. So can we feed off those types of things?"

The batting coach hailed his team, pointing out that their strength lies in the recognition that they are greater than the sum of their parts.

This collective mindset, he noted, makes them a unique and difficult team to beat, with unity and shared purpose driving their success.

"In fact, I think this team's greatest strength is the unity that they have in this camp. You only have to look at Tristan Stubbs’ celebration after a wicket to understand that. And, you know, they are well aware that South Africa have had much greater individual players, but they've got something special going on in that dressing room. And, you know, that sort of helps them to drag each other along," Prince said.

"I think (coach) Shukri must get a lot of credit for that because that's one of his strengths — making sure that everybody stays calm within the dressing room."