Temba Bavuma led South Africa made a thumping statement after winning the prestigious World Test Championship title against Australia on Saturday. The iconic Lords’ Cricket Ground saw them winning the trophy, chasing a tricky 282 runs in the fourth innings against the mighty bowling attack of Kangaroos led by Pat Cummins.
After being down and out for 138 runs in the first innings the victory is nothing short of brilliance.
This is not South Africa’s first ICC trophy as they won the inaugural Champions Trophy back in 1998. The Champions Trophy was then named as ICC Knockout Trophy and the edition they won in was the first held in Bangladesh.
South Africa’s 27 year long wait
South Africa started participating in ICC events from 1992 and misfortune has been a constant with them over the years. In their first World Cup, they were knocked out due to rain and a weird rule favoring England. Then came the 1999 WC semi-final against Australia when they managed to tie against the Kangaroos but Australia went to the final because of a better record in the overall tournament. Australia eventually won the World Cup that year.
Despite having one of the strongest sides in the tournament on paper starring Hashim Amla, Faf Du Plessis, AB Devillers, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir and others, they failed to win the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cup. The team was knocked out by New Zealand in the 2015 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand.
HansIe Cronje to Bavuma – A Baton passed after ages
Hansie Cronje was the first South African captain to hold an ICC trophy in 1998 in Bangladesh and after a long wait of 27 years, Bavuma held the WTC mace at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground. Earlier, SA came very close to even winning the T20 World Cup in 2024 at Barbados but India stopped the juggernaut miraculously defending 30 of 30 runs breaking the dream for the Proteas. Now, South Africa are the third team to win a World Test Championship Title after New Zealand in 2021 and Australia in 2023.
