Three things we learned from the World Test Championship final

South Africa shed their unwanted tag as nearly men with a decisive five-wicket win over Australia in the World Test Championship final on Saturday.

Victory, secured by Aiden Markram's superb hundred, with South Africa captain Temba Bavuma making a valuable fifty, ended years of tournament heartache for the Proteas following multiple failures at the one-day international and T20 World Cups.

Below AFP Sport looks at three key points that emerged from a fascinating final at Lord's.

MORE TO TESTS THAN THE 'BIG THREE'

Two of the three WTC finals have now been won by teams outside cricket's 'Big Three' powerhouse nations of England, Australia and India after New Zealand's inaugural 2021 triumph.

At a time when there are widespread fears that red-ball cricket could become the preserve of the Big Three alone, this is perhaps a sign of test cricket's enduring competitiveness.

South Africa, however, will not be playing a home test during the upcoming 2025/26 season.

And several South African observers reckoned there were more fans supporting Bavuma's men at Lord's than had seen at a home test in years.

There has long been talk of setting up a test match fund to help cricket's financially poorer nations defray some of the costs of staging five-day games.

Such a move could improve the WTC, with the current format under fire because teams do not all have to play each other or the same number of matches.

"We want to play more test cricket," said Bavuma after the final. "We want to play against the bigger nations. So I think this will go a long way in making us a lot more attractive."

AUSTRALIA FAIL TO PREPARE

With 28 wickets falling on the first two days, there was inevitably talk about whether the pitch was too much in favour of the fast bowlers on both sides.

But research by analysts at CricViz found there was in fact less movement in some areas than is typical for Lord's.

Not for the first time, minimal preparation was more likely the cause of the batsmen's troubles adapting to English conditions.

Australia didn't have a solitary practice match in England.

The experienced Steve Smith was responsible for the lone fifty by a specialist Australia batsman in the final.

The title-holders still led by 74 runs after the first innings, after making 212, but Australia captain Pat Cummins said: "We could have batted the opposition out of the game by putting on well over 300 plus. We didn't give ourselves a big enough buffer and we let them back into the game."

CATCHES STILL WIN MATCHES

The worth of the saying "catches win matches" was underlined by a sensational South Africa fielding display on the first day.

After Bavuma won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast fielding conditions, he needed his pacemen to be on their game.

Kagiso Rabada, who went on to take an impressive nine wickets in the match, was on target from ball one.

But Rabada and the rest of the pace attack were backed up superbly as the South Africa slip cordon and wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne held several stunning catches.

By contrast advanced slip Smith's drop of Bavuma, when the Proteas skipper had made just two, during the run chase helped turn the game South Africa's way.