WTC Final Preview: South Africa look to end ICC trophy curse but Australia stand in their way

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South Africa face Australia in WTC final at Lord's, another chance at winning an ICC trophy, which is coming after 25 years following the Birmingham heartbreak against the same side. Can the Proteas finally end their ICC trophy drought? read more
June 17, 1999, Birmingham. World Cup semi-final. One run needed off four balls. Lance Klusener, batting like a dream, has Australia at his mercy, and has reduced them to prayers. This South African team, if they get over the line, will be remembered forever.
Winning seems the easier gig too. But South Africa fluff their lines, floundering and quite literally, falling short, with Allan Donald and Klusener resembling cats on a hot tin roof. And that one run, which could be sensed, felt and perhaps even be touched, floats away into the English horizon.
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South Africa face a familiar foe at Lord's
South Africa , at the cost of a cliché, are perhaps still rummaging for it. They have availed the services of countless world-class players in that pursuit, but it remains elusive, and the Proteas, since that dreaded day in Birmingham, have NOT won an ICC trophy.
Over the next few days, that could change. Those wounds will not heal completely, although South Africa, by virtue of having yet another tilt at the big prize, can strap bandages over it and replace that stinging feeling with something more soothing.
But as fate would have it, their road to redemption is blocked by…Australia.
The defending champions may have lost the odd game at home and may have looked a little vulnerable on their most-recent Ashes adventure. But there is no denying their quality or pedigree of winning the moments that matter.
Prior to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the turn of the year, Australia knew they needed a string of wins to confirm their spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Despite losing at Perth to India, which led to all sorts of questions and criticisms, they ultimately did it at a canter - beating India 3-1 and then blanking Sri Lanka 2-0, away from home.
Their bowlers have been the bedrock of their surge to the final. Captain Pat Cummins has 73 wickets (the second-most this cycle, only behind Jasprit Bumrah), with Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon bagging 72 and 66, respectively. Josh Hazlewood has featured less prominently due to injuries, but remains an out-and-out match-winner across formats.
The batting department's numbers may not be as eye-catching, but Steve Smith, Travis Head and Usman Khawaja have more than 1100 runs each, with Alex Carey and Marnus Labuschagne also scoring more than 900 runs this cycle.
They will, however, be put to the sword by South Africa and Kagiso Rabada. Rabada has not played as many Tests as his Australian counterparts in this period, but averages less than 20, having picked up 47 wickets across ten matches, at a strike rate a shade under 38.
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His match-up against Head and Smith, in particular, could be pivotal, given how successful the pair was in the 2023 WTC final. Rabada has a decent record against them too, with Smith averaging 32, having been dismissed four times. Head, meanwhile, strikes at more than 100 against Rabada, but only averages 28, having been dismissed twice.
So, if Rabada can get rid of them cheaply, or exert enough pressure for the others to benefit, South Africa will fancy their chances. Especially if Marco Jansen, an exceptional new-ball bowler, can find assistance and Keshav Maharaj can extract turn later in the game. Not to mention that Rabada, after his recent one-month suspension, will also feel he has a point to prove.
For that, the Proteas will have to put up runs on the board. Their batters are inexperienced but have shown, in a variety of testing conditions, that they can get the job done. Aiden Markram, David Bedingham, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder and skipper Temba Bavuma have all scored centuries this cycle, with Bavuma, Rickelton and Mulder averaging in excess of 50.
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They will have their work cut out against Australia's pace troika and Lyon. But if any of them was looking for validation from the cricketing fraternity, well, this is it. Their opportunity to tell the world they can stand up on the biggest of stages, and that they can shed a reputation the Proteas have notoriously become synonymous with.
And so, two and a half decades since being chastened in Birmingham, South Africa will have their shot at salvation. Their chance to exorcize past ghosts and to definitively make it right. At arguably the most iconic venue in the sport, just a hundred miles away from the bone-chilling heartbreak of 1999, but potentially a lifetime and a world apart on the spectrum of emotions.
Can South Africa rewrite the script of 1999?
South Africa have been here before, and they know better than anyone else that nothing, at this stage, can be taken for granted. But after all the teasing and trembling of yore, especially in front of final frontiers, they will also recognize the need and the necessity for a steely display. All while Australia prance and prowl in their preferred habitat.
Therein lies the intrigue of this contest too. The beauty is not in knowing these are two top-drawer teams, but in acknowledging and realizing the baggage one carries, and the aura the other boasts – both of which have, on occasions, come at each other's expense.
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And in this year/season of barren streaks being snapped and of trophy thirsts being quenched, it feels poetic that South Africa, of all possible permutations and combinations, are back in the country where this sequence - of coming close but not ending up with the cigar - began. Face to face with the foe that foiled them more than 25 years ago.
History, of course, cannot be tweaked. Nor can it be altered. But this could be a watershed moment in itself. For the present and the future. A game that could define a generation of South African cricketers, and immortalize them. A match that could, considering where it is, and given who it is against, inject so much belief into Protean veins that they will feel they have the world at their feet, all over again.
That was what that afternoon in Birmingham was meant and supposed to be. And that, South Africa will hope, is what these next few days in London are.
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