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WTC Final 2025, SA vs AUS Live Updates: Will the WTC victors be decided today after a lightning-fast Test match?
WTC Final 2025, SA vs AUS Live Updates: Lungi Ngidi celebrates a wicket during day two of the WTC Final 2025.
WTC Final 2025, SA vs AUS Live Updates, South Africa vs Australia: The first two days of the World Test Championship Final of 2025 have gone at the speed of light, with 14 wickets falling on each of the two opening days of play, and meaning that what is usually just considered moving day in Test match cricket might be the one that decides it all here. The story of the match thus far has been fast bowling at its finest: Kagiso Rabada starting the charge with a five-fer, Australian captain Pat Cummins responding with a destructive post-lunch spell to take 6-28, before Rabada brought the Proteas right back into it with three more wickets in the third innings. ...Read More
What this meant at the conclusion of day two was a 218-run lead for Australia with two wickets still in the bag, and in a match that has seen batting be obliterated time and again by incredible pace bowling, it may already be enough. But day three is when the pitch is meant to be at its most docile, and the target likely won't be big enough to truly daunt South Africa's batting if it can perform to potential. This match will likely be decided one way or another today, and it will come down to a fairly simple battle within a battle: can South Africa's top order do better than they did on day one evening?
Openers Ryan Rickelton and Aiden Markram will be put to the test against the new ball in the morning of an overcast week, against Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who have made such a good habit over the years of winning ICC trophies that nobody will want to bet against them. With the form Pat Cummins is showing as the first change bowler, it won't get any easier — and it's difficult to find confidence when these bowlers are capable of beating both edges regularly, with at least one or two deliveries every over threatening to take a wicket.
It's been a batter's nightmare, but it will be about application and steel — something that South Africa showed with their backs to the wall with ball in hand through the second half of day two. This match is set up exactly how neutrals will have wanted it to be: balancing on a knife's edge, capable of going either way, and dead-set for a result. It has been a match that has showcased the talents of the bowlers at hand, and if South Africa want to get their hands on a first top-tier ICC trophy, they will have to be the team that bats the best in this match.
It all boils down to this. A fantastic start to the Test summer, and in a title match, a fantastic display of two remarkable teams locking horns. Who will outlast the other?
Follow all the updates here:
June 13, 2025 12:46 PM IST
WTC Final 2025, SA vs AUS Live Updates: It all boils down to this. 28 wickets split evenly across the first two days mean we are headed to a rapid conclusion to this WTC Final, and it will come down to a simple head-to-head: Australia's red-hot bowling against South Africa's talented batting. Today will be a dramatic, climactic display of cricket, and here are all the updates throughout the day as this match reaches a crescendo.
