South Africa won the World Test Championship 2025
South Africa won the World Test Championship 2025 final against Australia on 14 June. The final of the ultimate Test was contested at Lord’s. South Africa first ICC title in 27 years came in the form of their WTC 2025 final win. SA wrote his name in the history by winning this ultimate Test by 5 wickets on the 4th day at Lord’s. The Proteas won their last ICC title in 1998 in the form of the Champions Trophy. The defending Champions, Australia and South Africa, have started playing the final of WTC 2025 on 11 June. This was a tough competition between two leading giants in Test cricket.
WTC 2025 Final Match Report
First Innings
Temba Bavuma led the South African side and decided to bowl after winning the toss. The Australian batters faced challenges due to tough bowling conditions. Australia faced early loss as the star Test batter Usman Khawaja left without opening his account in 20 balls. Kagiso Rabada got his first wicket of Usman when Australia were at 12 in the 7th over. Rabada tasted another success in the same over and removed the newcomer Cameron Green. Green hit just one four before leaving the ground. Then the legendary Australian player Steve Smith came onto the pitch and made a 30-run partnership with Marnus Labuschagne. Macro Jansen destabilized the batting of Australia as he took the wicket of Marnus in the 18th over.
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Australia had some hopes at this stage that the explosive batter Travis Head would make things better for them. He supported the Australian innings with Smith but had no answer to the Proteas’ challenging bowling. Again, Macro Jansen took the wicket of Travis Head in the 24th over. Smith made a partnership of 79 runs with the new batter Beau Webster and took Australia up to 146. After that, he left the crease while adding 66 runs of great importance in his account.
Alex Carey helped Australia reach a reasonable position with his 23 runs. Australia were at 192/6 when he left his side in a fighting position. The fighting player Webster made 72 in 92 balls with 11 fours. Due to this, Australia ended its first innings at 212.
Rabada’s Five Wickets
South African star bowler Kagiso Rabada took five wickets in the first innings of the ultimate Test. He gave 51 runs in 15.4 overs of his spell in the WTC 2025 final. He also finished the innings of Australia’s top run-scorer, Webster, in the first inning.
The Australian bowling unit also took complete advantage of the good bowling conditions. Mitchell Starc took the wicket of dangerous South African batter Aiden Markram in the very first over. Then he also sent back the other opener in the 9th over of SA’s chase. South Africa’s captain, Temba Bavuma, took responsibility to chase the target but made a slight difference. He added just 36 runs to his innings in the tough conditions of the World Test Championship 2025 Final.
David Bedingham made the top runs for SA as he helped his side to make 135 with his 45 runs. South Africa had managed to make just 138 runs in response to Australia’s 212. This was just because of the Australian Captain Pat Cummins. The legendary bowler took 6 wickets in just 18.1 overs while giving just 28 runs.
Second Innings
Australia started their second innings with a lead of 74 runs in the WTC 2025 final. Khawaja failed again in the 2nd innings as he scored just 6 runs and got out again by Rabada. Rabada took the wicket of Green in the same over to put pressure on the opposition despite a good lead. Australia were 73/7 in just 25 overs due to their failed batting lineup. Then Alex Carey put his side in good position while making 43 runs. Starc made a historic 58 runs and took Australia to a fighting total of 207. In this way, Australia set the target of 282 for SA in the final of WTC 2025.
South Africa started in an aggressive style to chase the target of 282. Starc got an early success as he took the wicket of Rickelton in the 3rd over. Then Wiaan Mulder continued the chase with Markram during the 3rd day of the ultimate Test. Mulder made 27 runs, including 5 aggressive fours. Bavuma made 66 runs in this historic Test during this tough chase, but Markram’s 100 made it easy.
Markram Historic 100
Aiden Markram made a historic century at Lord’s during this ultimate Test against the best bowling attack in the world. Markram smashed 136 in 207 deliveries with 14 fours, and what a stage to achieve this milestone. He supported his team as his captain to win the first ICC Trophy in 27 years.
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The historic moment came when Kyle Verreynne scored the last run in the chase of 282. South Africa made history under the leadership of Temba Bavuma to win their only ICC title in 27 years. They won the ICC Test Championship 2025 final on the 4th day of the contest.