South Africa clinched their first World Test Championship title with a composed five-wicket victory over Australia at Lord’s on Saturday and broke a 27-year drought.
Chasing a 282-run target, the Proteas reached the target on the fourth morning, led by the 136 partnership between Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma.
The result ends years of near-misses in global tournaments and marks a turning point for a team long burdened by the “chokers” tag.
The Proteas made reasonably light work of the 69 runs they needed to win the mace on the fourth morning in London, with Kyle Verreynne hitting the winning shot to deliver South Africa their first men’s senior ICC trophy since 1998.
Opener Aiden Markram fell late in proceedings with just six runs required, with his innings of 136 proving the difference between the two sides in a match where ball dominated bat for the majority of the contest.
There were only two other hiccups for South Africa on the fourth morning, with skipper Temba Bavuma (66) removed by Australian counterpart Pat Cummins (1/59) in the third over of the day as the Aussies sniffed a potential lifeline and then Mitchell Starc (3/66) pierced the defences of Tristan Stubbs (8) when 41 runs were still required.
But just like he had done on a crucial third day, Markram stayed composed and waited for the bad ball to dispatch, and made batting look relatively easy as South Africa inched towards the victory target.
His demeanour didn’t change when Bavuma and Stubbs departed, and his dismissal to Josh Hazlewood (1/58) with the finish line in sight only allowed the opener to soak up the atmosphere and receive a standing ovation from the appreciative Lord’s crowd.
While Markram will win plenty of plaudits for his match-winning innings and deservedly so, South Africa received a strong range of contributions from their entire XI and pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada also played a vital role in the triumph with his nine wickets across the two innings.
Both Markram and Rabada played together when South Africa won the ICC Men’s Under 19 Cricket World Cup in 2014 and this victory is just rewards for the pair and a South African team that have had so many close misses in the knockout stages of ICC events in recent times.
