C for Champions: South Africa end 27-year-old trophy drought, hammer Australia in WTC Final

India Today

21 hours ago

2 quarter-finals, 12 semi-finals, and one final later, South Africa have finally done it. They have been crowned the champions of an ICC tournament after a long wait of 27 years. Tears flowed through the eyes of South African players as Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma ended the country's ICC trophy drought on Saturday, June 14 against the mighty Australians.South Africa scripted an epic comeback in the World Test Championship Final, chasing a record target in the summit clash against the defending champions. The writing was on the wall from the second session of Day 3, when Markram and Bavuma put together a defiant stand at the Lord's pitch, which had claimed 28 wickets in the first two days of the game. The duo showed exceptional grit and hunger, ticking off one run at a time against the massive target of 282 runs.advertisement69 were needed when South Africa came out to bat on Day 4 of the contest. Markram and Bavuma started solidly, but it was once again the talismanic Pat Cummins who broke through. In the third over of Day 4, Cummins bowled a terrific delivery that kissed the edge of Bavuma's bat and went straight into the hands of the wicketkeeper.
Tristan Stubbs (8 off 43) added resistance alongside Markram, but was dismissed by a ripper of a delivery from Mitchell Starc. However, Markram, unbeaten at 102 overnight, made sure that he brought South Africa home, to hand them their first ever ICC title in the last 27 years.Once the final runs were scored, the South Africa players sat in the dressing room, soaking in the moment, as the fans shed tears across the stands at the Lord's. The former players cried their hearts out in a moment of surreal outpouring, while singing songs for their national team.advertisementAnd why not? South Africa came into the final with baggage bigger than any team in the history of world cricket. Defeated in the knockout stage in 15 ICC tournaments, despite reaching the quarter-finals and the semi-finals consistently in most competitions, it was a moment in the sun for South Africa, a proud cricketing nation. The moment perhaps was made more significant as South Africa's first Black Test captain guided the team to an ICC title, 10 years after the 'quota problem' haunted them in the 2015 ODI World Cup.South Africa were down and out at the start of Day 3 after Mitchell Starc's 58* had taken Australia to a strong total of 207 runs, setting the target at 282, the joint second-highest ever chased at the Lord's. It was more than two decades ago when Marcus Trescothick's England downed Stephen Fleming's New Zealand in the final innings, courtesy of a sublime century from Nasser Hussain.Since 2004, a target this big had not been chased down by any team in red-ball cricket. However, the stars seemed to be aligned when the wicket flattened out under the sun on Day 3, with Markram and Bavuma waging their fight in the second session of the match.advertisementBavuma, dropped at 2 by Steve Smith, braved the Australian fast bowlers and a hamstring injury to take South Africa to the cusp of history. Bavuma, alongside Markram, added 143 runs for the 3rd wicket, getting South Africa within 69 runs of the target.As fans cheered on the South African players in anticipation of their historic win, former player and legend of the game, Dale Steyn, remained cautious. Steyn said that South Africa had to score the hardest 69 runs of their lives to win the WTC Final.The warning turned out to be true after Pat Cummins sent Bavuma back to the dugout in the third over of the Day 4 morning, edging the batter back to the keeper.However, Markram stayed strong on the other end, and navigated the variable bounce of Day 4 to perfection. Despite having the option of going hard at the ball and getting the required runs quickly, South Africa stuck to their game plan, showing restraint against the balls bowled away from the body on the off side.Australia brought Nathan Lyon on by the 10-over mark on Day 4, hoping that the purchase on the wicket would get them the inroads they required. Lyon bowled exceptionally well, not giving free runs from one end of the innings.advertisementThings got very tentative half an hour into the day when South Africa were not able to score freely against any bowlers. Markram navigated this part of play smartly, keeping busy with ones and twos when boundaries were hard to come by.Australia were smarter with their fields as well. Unlike Day 3, where their fielders were around the 25-yard mark, they brought themselves much closer, in turn stopping multiple well-struck shots.Lyon had two close-in fielders on the leg side, which put Tristan Stubbs and David Bedingham in trouble.Australia were able to snuff out the wickets of Stubbs and Markram in the 71st and 81st over respectively, but ended up losing the match by 5 wickets on Sunday.Kyle Verreynne hit the winning shots, taking South Africa to the ultimate glory in red-ball cricket.SOUTH AFRICA SHED YEARS OF BAGGAGEBowled out for 138 runs in the first innings, things looked grim for South Africa. Aiden Markram, their hero of the second innings, had fallen for a 6-ball duck. All those words about not carrying baggage of the past from Shukri Conrad, the head coach, sounded nonsensical as the Proteas bottled it in the first innings.advertisementHow crucial must the 45-run knock from David Bedingham have been for South Africa, which got them at least over 100 runs against Australia's 212 in the first innings. The challengers needed a strong bowling outing in the second from Kagiso Rabada, and the fast bowler came up trumps, picking up 5 wickets, his 9th overall in the game.Despite Rabada's efforts, it seemed that the match had slipped away from South Africa's hands when Mitchell Starc came in clutch, hitting some crucial runs for the Australians once again. The 58* was Starc's 11th fifty in Test cricket, which took him to a total of 2,276 runs.Starc gave Australia a glimmer of hope in the final innings of the Test match as well, bowling a ripper of a delivery to Tristan Stubbs. A pitch-perfect wobble seam ball jagged back from around the stumps, sneaking through Stubbs' defence, dislodging the leg stump bail in the process.The air immediately changed at the Lord's as that wicket put sustained pressure on the South Africans. Runs did not come freely as Australian players dived around to stop the boundaries and made the batters work hard for each of their runs.advertisementCredit must be given to Markram, who opted against hitting big shots against the pacers and Nathan Lyon, and simply knocked the ball around, bringing South Africa closer and closer to the target.Remember that in 2024, in the T20 final against India, South Africa needed a run a ball to win the final, with 6 wickets in hand. And yet, from that winning position, which 9/10 teams could have converted with ease in this day and age, South Africa flunked.Ahead of Day 4, South African fans outside Lord's rightly pointed out that they would start believing their team would win once the required number of runs was zero.Did Markram hear them? Did those murmurs sneak into the dressing room? Instead of going for expansive drives like Heinrich Klaasen did in the 2024 final, Markram stayed put. Throughout his innings, he did not give a single chance to the Australians, bar one run-out chance when 50-odd runs were required.As Australia built pressure with dot balls, Markram's resilient defence met them with intent, knowing well that desperate Australia would make mistakes and fail to keep up their intensity at some point.To Australia's credit, they stayed in the game for nearly 30 overs on Day 4, despite defending 69 runs. But their poor strategising on Day 3 came back to eventually haunt them.This was also Pat Cummins first loss in an ICC tournament final as the captain of the Australian side.Must Watch