{"id":10480,"date":"2025-06-15T03:04:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T03:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10480"},"modified":"2025-06-15T03:04:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T03:04:39","slug":"sa-stun-aus-to-clinch-wtc-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10480","title":{"rendered":"SA stun Aus to clinch WTC crown"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aiden Markram’s magnificent century was the cornerstone of South Africa’s five-wicket victory over Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s on Saturday as the Proteas ended decades of cricket heartbreak by at last winning a major global title.<\/p>\n

South Africa, set 282 to win, finished on 282-5 before lunch on the fourth day, with opening batsman Markram falling for 136 after taking South Africa to within six runs of the title.<\/p>\n

“It’s special in a lot of ways,” said Proteas captain Temba Bavuma in front of what was effectively a ‘home’ crowd given the large number of South Africa fans who had packed into Lord’s.<\/p>\n

“Also, it’s a chance for South Africa to be united,” said Bavuma, who has now joined Springboks Rugby World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi in becoming a black African skipper of a South Africa side that has won a major global title.<\/p>\n

The Proteas resumed on 213-2, needing just 69 more runs for victory.<\/p>\n

Markram, dismissed for a duck in the first innings, was 102 not out and Bavuma unbeaten on 65 despite spending most of his innings limping with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

But South Africa have such a long history of folding under pressure they could not take anything for granted against serial winners and defending WTC title-holders Australia.<\/p>\n

In 18 previous attempts in the one-day international and T20 World Cups, South Africa had only reached a solitary final.<\/p>\n

That was in last year’s T20 World Cup in Barbados, when they lost to India despite needing just 30 runs from their last 30 balls, with six wickets standing.<\/p>\n

But South Africa, so often labelled “chokers” for their failure to close out knockout games, held their nerve on Saturday as a largely unheralded side succeeded where star players such as Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis had failed.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s path to the final was criticised, with the Proteas playing just 12 Tests in the WTC cycle and none against England or Australia.<\/p>\n

But with Australia strong favourites to retain their title, South Africa posted an eighth successive Test win in impressive style.<\/p>\n

“I hope our performance gives credit as to why we were in the final,” said Bavuma.<\/p>\n

“Whilst we were batting, we could hear the Aussies using that dreaded word ‘choke’. We’ve been etched in history, we’re part of something that has never been done.”<\/p>\n

The celebrations spread across the Lord’s turf as each of the players took their turn with the silver and gold mace.<\/p>\n

“It is emotional, it’s been a very long time coming,” said Markram, who was named player of the match.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got close in the past couple of years and not got over the line. The first one is always going to be the toughest.”<\/p>\n

Australia led by 74 runs on first innings but never got completely away from South Africa, with Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada returning superb match figures of 9-110.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, it was a bridge too far,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins, who led Australia to the 2023 WTC title after New Zealand won the inaugural 2021 final.<\/p>\n

“They (South Africa) were fantastic in that fourth innings. There wasn’t a lot in the wicket but they didn’t give us a chance.”<\/p>\n

South Africa suffered a setback early on Saturday when Bavuma, who had added just one run to his overnight score, was caught behind off Cummins to end a stand of 147 with Markram.<\/p>\n

But Markram got the target down to 50 by pulling Cummins for four before left-arm quick Mitchell Starc (3-66) bowled Tristan Stubbs.<\/p>\n

Australia took the new ball with South Africa needing just 14 more runs to win and Markram subsequently drove Josh Hazlewood for four and three to settle any nerves.<\/p>\n

He couldn’t quite finish the job, though. His pull off Hazlewood was brilliantly caught by Travis Head at midwicket to end a 207-ball innings featuring 14 fours.<\/p>\n

As Markram received a standing ovation on his way back to the pavilion, several Australia players shook his hand.<\/p>\n

It was left to Kyle Verreynne to hit the winning run as South Africa completed the second-highest chase to win a Test at Lord’s, behind the West Indies’ 344-1 against England in 1984.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aiden Markram’s magnificent century was the cornerstone of South Africa’s five-wicket victory over Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s on Saturday as the Proteas ended decades of cricket heartbreak by at last winning a major global title. South Africa, set 282 to win, finished on 282-5 before lunch on the fourth day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}