Any international century is a worthy achievement.
They are so rare and difficult to achieve that the manner of them hardly seems to matter. nBut then some are more special than others.
Like walking to the crease with your team precariously placed at 29/2 at the start of the eighth over against the world champions, with two of the finest new-ball specialists in Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc exploiting the bowler-friendly conditions to full effect.
The task at hand becomes even greater when your partners at the other end, including the captain of the ship, continue to stumble. Yet you soldier on, confronting each new challenge as it comes, absorbing all the pressure that is exerted, before eventually erupting into an animated celebration exactly 100 balls later upon reaching a well-deserved second ODI century.
“When those first two wickets went down against a world-class bowling attack, I really had to dig deep, and it took a lot out of me, ,” Proteas hero Matthew Breetzke explained after his match-winning 112 in the first ODI against Australia at Kingsmead. "I'm just grateful that I got through and scored that 100 for everyone
“Obviously, a proud moment for me and my family, but I think it was just more how difficult it was in the beginning and how I had to fight myself through it mentally.
“There were a few stages where I wanted to take a risk or whatever, and then we kept losing wickets. When I got to that century mark, it was a bit of a relief, and yeah, I'm just very grateful.”
But what was the approach at the crease when everyone else’s methods faltered up front?
“The chat was just to play straight,” Breetzke said.
“I think as soon as you looked [to play] too square, you saw a couple of balls resulting in leading edges and stuff like that. So, it was just to play straight, have good body language, and get through.”
There was also a moment when Breetzke’s fierce competitive spirit shone through. Having been hit by an attempted run-out shy from Australian wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, Breetzke and his partner Marco Jansen scampered through for a single during the death overs — an action that goes against the game’s moral code, but not the rules.
Australian pace bowler Nathan Ellis was visibly annoyed and shared his frustrations with both Breetzke and Jansen, who twisted the knife further by smashing the next two deliveries for consecutive sixes.
"I was just in the moment, to be honest," Breetzke said.
"If that's in a World Cup, I'm probably going to do that again. If I was on the fielding side, I would be giving the batter hell as well, so it's just part of the game."
Having Jansen’s lanky frame at the other end was not only beneficial for potential skirmishes, but the all-rounder helped ease the burden on Breetzke’s shoulders.
Jansen did the heavy lifting when it came to increasing the tempo of the innings, striking a whirlwind 75 off 59 balls (7x4, 4x6). Their 107-run partnership for the sixth wicket off only 81 balls was match-defining, with Breetzke not hitting a single boundary for the first 55 runs of it.
“It was a special innings from Marco. He helped my innings a lot there,” Breetzke said.
“I think if you look at him, when he's at his best, he looks to attack. It was never the plan for him to go guns blazing. He got one away, and then he just led with the momentum.
“We feed off each other's energy, and I was happy to feed him strike.”
Breetzke’s second ton has now pushed his batting average to 63.23 — the third-highest all-time among those who have batted at least 10 times — and his 822 runs are the most by any batter to have completed 14 ODI innings.
With a World Cup on home soil almost exactly 12 months away, the Gqeberha-born batter is certainly staking a strong case to be the Proteas’ permanent No 4.