World Test Championship final quick hits: SA breaks a drought, woe for Cummins, KG's choice words

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10 hours ago

South Africa celebrates a long-awaited triumph, Pat Cummins gives hope then burns reviews and Kagiso Rabada's message for the haters.
Here are the quick hits from the World Test Championship final.
South Africa has put together some of the best teams world cricket has seen, but never won a major ICC trophy.
(No, we aren't counting the 1998 Wills International KnockOut Trophy, the earliest iteration of the Champions Trophy.)
Since being reinstated to international competition in 1991, South Africa has fallen at the semifinal hurdle of the men's Cricket World Cup five times, including absolute heartbreakers in 1999 and 2015 that beggar belief.
Last year they lost finals at the men's and women's T20 World Cups, and the 2023 Women's T20 tournament too.
But after decades of agony, finally the Proteas are on top of the cricketing world.
With South Africa only needing 69 runs to win with eight wickets in hand and their best batters at the crease to start the day, Australia was always going to need a miracle on day four at Lord's.
Pat Cummins is no stranger to delivering glorious moments for Australia, including at this very London ground, and he made sure he took the ball to start day four.
Opposing captain Temba Bavuma got rousing applause from the partisan crowd when he blocked the first delivery, but by the end of the third over he was gone.
After a mighty 134-ball 66, most of it hampered by an injured hamstring, Bavuma was in the pavilion and Australia had a reason to believe.
It had been a while since the quality of Australia's reviews had really been under the microscope.
And that's a testament to the work Pat Cummins and his side have put into improving their use of the DRS system.
Of course, that examination was prompted by the Headingley disaster of 2019, when Australia's burning of reviews allowed for Ben Stokes's innings of a lifetime to guide England to an unlikely victory.
Today, Australia's reviews were never likely to be as consequential. And they weren't.
But all three of Cummins's day four Hail Marys were dreadful.
The first was a stifled LBW shout off his own bowling that was clearly sliding down leg, the second was a leg side strangulation that never was, and the third was another LBW appeal that was high and outside the line.
They didn't end up costing Australia the game, but they did end up costing Starc a wicket, with umpire Richard Illingworth missing a clear Kyle Verreynne nick when scores were level.
With lunch pushed back and with South Africa requiring just six more to win, it seemed fitting for the match-winning Markram to strike the final blow.
A six was about the only thing missing from his exquisite, nerveless innings of 136.
Hazlewood charged in, dropped one on a good length and Markram shovelled it to the on-side.
Travis Head saw it coming, dived, and the ball disappeared underneath him.
As if in slow motion, he rose without a tell until he held his index finger out in front of him.
Markram was out and he was livid.
He wanted to be there at the end, but it didn't matter — he had just played the most important innings even seen in the World Test Championship.
Since the tournament's inception in 2019, questions have surrounded the structure of the World Test Championship.
In a two year cycle, teams are unable to play series against all 12 Test-playing nations.
Because of this, "easier" and "harder" routes to the final are bound to emerge.
Although South Africa was the first team to qualify for the 2025 decider, some had questioned its spot in it due to the Proteas' supposedly kinder run of fixtures.
During the 2023-25 cycle, the South Africans played just one of Test cricket's "big three" and their series triumphs came against traditionally weaker sides.
Speaking after his side had won it all, premier pacer Kagiso Rabada had some choice words for those who had criticised his side's appearance at the big dance.
"People were saying we weren't playing good enough opposition but I think that's rubbish," Rabada told Prime Video.
"We came here and we played the best team.
"Australia were magnificent all season and we had to be on our A game to beat them."