In a stunning comeback, South Africa defeated Australia by five wickets on Saturday to win the World Test Championship after successfully chasing down a formidable 282-run goal.
They resumed at 213-2 overnight, but it was a tense finale as they gradually scored the 69 runs required to win on the fourth day at Lord’s in 27.4 overs.
For South Africa, who had gained an unwelcome reputation for failing when poised for victory in limited overs competitions over the previous few decades, it was their first significant cricket victory.
They made their maiden appearance in the WTC final, and they won thanks to a valiant 136-run innings from opener Aiden Markram.
With six runs remaining to win, Markram, who hit his century late on the third day, added 34 more runs on Saturday, building up steadily before being caught by Travis Head.
Kyle Verreynne hit the winning run and was four not out at the end along with David Bedingham, who scored an unbeaten 21.
Given a long list of previous setbacks, South Africa began the fourth day as the clear favorites to win, but they were nervous and would have been much more so when skipper Temba Bavuma was dismissed in the morning’s third over.
Bavuma left after adding only one run to his overnight score of 65 when an edge was taken by a rising delivery from Australia captain Pat Cummins.
After reaching 207 in their second innings, Australia’s lead had grown to 74 runs thanks to South Africa’s reply of 138.
Their tail order had recovered from a dip to 73-7.
However, South Africa patiently batted themselves to a historic victory after 24 wickets were lost in the first two days due to a drastic change in the pitch conditions.
Source: Dawn News, Reuters, and Aljazeera
