South Africa’s victorious ICC World Test Championship (WTC) squad returned to the scene of their famous win on Monday when they descended on Lord’s for more celebrations.
The entire 15-player squad was on hand with the famous mace at the Home of Cricket, just two days after they completed a historic five-wicket win over Australia in the World Test Championship Final.
The players and support staff were in good spirits as they came together for one last look at Lord’s before they return to South Africa and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder said the celebrations had been spirited.
“It’s been a very, very good couple of days. Celebrations like I haven’t had before, so as a team I think we’re super chuffed and no better place to do it than at the Home of Cricket,” Mulder told ICC Digital at Lord’s.
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Mulder admitted he had hardly slept since arriving in London, with nerves leading into the Ultimate Test and the celebrations post-match still taking their toll.
And while Mulder revealed all the players and support staff had joined in the frivolity, he said it was a group of players from Western Province that had led the way.
“I think it’s the Western Province crew, to be honest,” Mulder said when asked who had been the best celebrators.
“All of them celebrate victory very, very hard. Kyle Verreynne, Dane Paterson, David Bedingham and (batting coach) Ashwell Prince are kind of the leaders of our vibe team, so they have been the guys that have gone all out,” he added.
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Notably, Mulder played alongside Australia captain Pat Cummins and star batter Travis Head at Sunrisers Hyderabad during the IPL 2025 and the 27-year-old said he enjoyed getting to know the pair during his brief stint with the franchise.
“Heady is one of the top blokes around and Patty is also a great guy. I spent some time with them at the Sunrisers during the IPL and there was a lot of banter,” Mulder said.
“I trained a lot because I didn’t play a lot in the IPL and I spent a lot of time facing Pat and facing Heady (in the nets), so there was a lot of banter coming into the WTC,” he added.
