This past week saw South Africa take on Australia in the World Test Championship final. It was highly anticipated. The Aussies were hot favourites heading into the tie. South Africa were deemed to be unworthy of contesting the final due to the opposition they faced. What went in the Aussies' favour was the, "chokers" tag that was attached to the Proteas. They have always stuttered at the last hurdle in every ICC event.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl first amid the overhead conditions. That decision seemed to pay off as Australia would find themselves at 67-4. A 79 run partnership between Steve Smith (66) and Beau Webster (72) ensured that they weren't bundled out cheaply. Unfortunately, they fell to a collapse by losing 5 wickets for 20 runs. Australia were bowled out for 212. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5-51.
South Africa, in reply, didn't fare much better. They found themselves at 30-4. A 64 run partnership between Temba Bavuma (36) and David Bedingham (45) ensured a major catastrophe didn't occur. Despite the brief revival, South Africa also succumbed to a batting collapse. They lost 5 wickets for 12 runs. This resulted in them being bowled out for 138. Pat Cummins was the star bowler with figures of 6-28.
This gave Australia a lead of 74 runs.
Australia couldn't capitalise on the lead. They found themselves at 73-7. However, contributions from Alex Carey (43); Mitchell Starc (58*) and Josh Hazlewood (17) meant that Australia lost their last three wickets for 134 runs. They were bowled out for 207 and a final lead of 281. Kagiso Rabada was the best bowler with 4-59. Lungi Ngidi was another pick as he got the key wickets of Steve Smith (13) and Beau Webster (9). He finished with 3-38.
In getting the wickets that he did, Kagiso Rabada overtook Allan Donald and became South Africa's fourth highest wicket taker in Tests.
This set South Africa a target of 282.
The bedrock of the chase was the partnership between Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma. They came together at the scoreline reading 70-2. South Africa still needed a further 212 runs to win. Slowly by slowly, the two chipped away at the required runs. That partnership ended at 147 runs and South Africa at 217-3. Temba Bavuma was the unlucky one as he was dismissed for 66. It's important to note that he was doing this on one leg as he sustained a hamstring injury early on when he was on 6. Aiden Markram couldn't finish the job as he was caught out for 136. Kyle Verreyne hit the winning run.
This victory ended a 27 year long streak of heartache. There was a big number between this win and the last time they won an ICC tournament in 1998; when they won the Wills International Cup. There are a few interesting stats regarding the victory.
There was a whopping 9 722 days between the two victories.
The 282 was South Africa's fifth highest successful run chase. Four of the five have been against Australia. The other run chase was against England. This was also the 2nd highest run chase at Lord's. The highest was 342 for West Indies in 1984.
This was South Africa's 8th consecutive Test win. This is their second longest streak. Their longest is 9 on the trot between 2002-03. It's also the longest in the WTC. The previous highest was 7 by both India and New Zealand.
The 138 scored by South Africa was their lowest in an away Test win. There have been three other times when fewer runs were scored in the first innings.
South Africa became only the third team to win by scoring the highest score of the match in the fourth innings. The other two were West Indies (as aforementioned) and in 1988 and England in 2019.
This was Temba Bavuma's 9th Test win (out of 10). He now joins Englishman, Percy Chapman, with the highest number of wins in the first ten Tests as captain. Chapman lost the other one while Bavuma's was drawn. Temba Bavuma remains unbeaten as Test captain.
Aiden Markram scored his 3rd fourth innings Test century. He's now only behind Graeme Smith in fourth innings centuries scored for South Africans. Smith scored 4 during his career.
*Stats supplied by ESPNCricinfo.
To be honest, I was always nervous about the match; regardless of how the match was flowing. It was because of the, "chokers" tag that was attached to the Proteas. I felt that they could crumble at any moment. That moment came when they were bowled out for 138 and conceding a lead of 74. Knowing Australia, they could've caused more trouble and set a target that South Africa couldn't possibly reach. This was compounded when Australia took 3 quick wickets on Day 4. I guess I only overcame the anxiety when South Africa needed round about 15 runs to win.
Congratulations South Africa!!!!!!!!