South Africa handed ultimate chance to end ‘chokers' tag

Telegraph

20 hours ago

In the 33 years since readmission to global cricket, South Africa have generally been among the three best teams in the world. And yet, for all the great players that the country has produced – Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, just to start – South Africa have lacked a defining triumph on the international stage.
Remarkably, in 18 previous attempts in the ODI and T20 World Cups, South Africa have only reached a solitary final. That was in last year's T20 World Cup in Barbados, when they lost after needing just 30 runs from their last 30 balls, with six wickets in hand. In all knockout matches, South Africa have lost 10 out of 12 games, and been given the most detested nickname in professional sport: chokers.
In this context, the third day of the World Test Championship final at Lord's looms as a remarkable opportunity. After two intense days, brimming with magnificent bowling and some underwhelming batting, Australia lead South Africa by 218 runs, with just two second-innings wickets remaining.
A tantalising fourth-innings run chase looms, with South Africa needing around 240 runs to complete a momentous triumph. A relatively unheralded group of players have the opportunity to do what their more lauded predecessors failed to do, and win an International Cricket Council trophy. South Africa's class of 2012, who won series in England and Australia and were world number one, also reached the summit of the Test game. But victory in a single winner-takes-all final would bring catharsis to fans worn down by anguish in World Cup knockout matches.
It would be particularly deserved for Kagiso Rabada, whose performance in the final has emphasised that he belongs alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins among the three best Test bowlers in the world. After Cummins's six for 28, combining masterful command of line and length with subtle changes of line to bowl South Africa out for 138, Rabada hauled his side back into the game.
For the second time in 30 hours, Rabada dismissed both Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the same over. He did so with the same template: inducing Khawaja to poke at a ball nipping away, and then Green to push with hard hands into the slips.
This over, coming when Australia's lead had cleared 100, transformed the feel of the Test match. It was the catalyst for an ignominious Australian collapse, losing seven wickets for 45 as they hurtled from 28 without loss to 73 for seven.
Lungi Ngidi, too wayward on the opening day, channelled Rabada's approach. In a nine-over burst after tea, Ngidi threatened the stumps relentlessly. Even Steve Smith succumbed, struck on the back leg while trying to whip the ball to square.
Several periods of cloud cover, including one in the heart of Australia's second-innings collapse, have amplified the challenge facing batsmen. The pitch at Lord's has offered some – but not dramatic – assistance. But the batsmen's real problem has been neither the pitch nor the conditions, but the sheer brilliance of the bowlers they have faced. And so Australia will already believe that their lead, which swelled as Alex Carey accumulated briskly in later afternoon sunshine, will prove decisive.
Yet, for all the depth of the challenge that awaits South Africa in their run chase, David Bedingham and Temba Bavuma on the second morning offered a template for how to approach Australia's attack. The two added 64 in 19 overs, relatively unperturbed, until Bavuma succumbed to a full-length diving catch from Marnus Labuschagne in the covers. 'We definitely showed more intent today,' said Bedingham, who top-scored with 45.
The history of fourth-innings run chases in Test cricket is largely one of false hope. But in recent years, as the rate of Tests has accelerated, sizeable chases – especially in England – have become more common.
How a pitch plays is governed by how much cricket has been played on the wicket, not the innings of the pitch. And, for all the jeopardy that the fourth innings brings, South Africa will bat on the third day – traditionally, the best time in a Test to bat. They will be cheered on by thousands of green and yellow shirts in the crowd; South Africa's contingent has comfortably outnumbered Australia's so far this Test match.
The raucous support is an indication of what this Test means to South Africa. A side whose path to the Test Championship final has been denigrated, and who largely exist on a staple of unappetising two-match series, can now eye a seminal moment in their nation's cricket history.
Victory would not only belatedly be a first trophy in a major men's ICC tournament. It could also bring an even greater prize: transforming South African Test cricket.