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VICTORY: Bavuma, Markram lead Proteas to Test glory

rugby14 June 2025 13:15| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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South Africa became Test Champions of the world with a hard-fought and emotional five-wicket victory against Australia on the fourth morning of the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s on Saturday.

Aiden Markram resumed on 102 with the Proteas on 213-2 chasing a target 282 and completed the innings of a lifetime with a 135 compiled from 207 balls over six hours as the remaining 69 runs were gradually ticked off for the loss of three wickets as the pressure mounted with every dot ball and single.

Markram punched a length delivery from Australian captain Pat Cummins to the cover boundary and pulled another through midwicket but they were the only boundaries in the first 100 minutes of the session until David Bedingham played the shot of the day, a glorious on-drive against Cummins.

Australia’s bowlers fought doggedly to scramble back into the contest and forced the batsmen to earn every run but the South Africans, led by the imperious Markram, refused to buckle under the pressure and stayed calm until the end.

Captain Temba Bavuma added just a single to his overnight score of 65 before edging Cummins to ‘keeper Alex Carey but his partnership of 147 with Markram did the vast majority of the heavy-lifting in an extraordinary run chase and will be remembered as amongst the best in his country’s Test history.

Tristan Stubbs was content to play a subservient, supporting role to Markram with an obdurate eight runs from 43 balls before Mitchell Starc bowled him with a wonderful bail-trimmer but 30-year-old Bedingham (21*) looked calm and nerveless although he was probably neither.

Josh Hazlewood took the second new ball and bowled full and straight to Markram only to be whipped away to the midwicket boundary to bring the target down to 10 runs. The next delivery was clipped into the same region for three more runs and suddenly the target was down to single figures.

But with just six runs needed Markram again flicked Hazlewood towards square leg where Travis Head hung onto a dicing catch and his epic, triumphant and memorable innings was over. Utterly chanceless until that point, Markram was clearly disappointed at not finishing the job but it was a measure of the quality of his performance that every single one of the Australians ran to congratulate him as he walked towards the pavilion.

It was left to wicket keeper Kyle Verreynne (7*) to score the winning runs but Markram and Bavuma will be remembered as the heroes with the bat although their runs would have been futile without the Kagiso Rabada’s match figures of 9-110.

SOUTH AFRICA: Temba Bavuma (capt), Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.

AUSTRALIA: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

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