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South Africa defeated Australia by five wickets in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's. With this victory, they ended their 27-year wait for winning an ICC trophy and also became the third different team to win the WTC mace in as many editions of the competition.
After being given a target of 282 by the Aussies, the duo of Aiden Markram and skipper Temba Bavuma stepped up big time and formed a brilliant 147-run partnership. They had already managed to cut the deficit down to 69 runs before the beginning of the fourth day and then went on to easily achieve the target with Kyle Verreynne hitting the winning runs.
Markram, Rabada and Bavuma were the top performers for South Africa in the final
Markram was the star performer for the side with his knock of 136 and thus was also adjudged as the Player of the Match. Bavuma also played a crucial inning of 66 to massively help the Proteas emerge victorious over the reigning champions. Another hero for South Africa was seamer Kagiso Rabada, who dominated against the Australian batters in both the innings, picking up a total of nine wickets in the summit clash.
This wasn't just a celebratory moment for the South African team but an emotional one too as they finally put all the heartbreaks that they had suffered for the past 27 years behind them and recorded a famous victory over Australia in the WTC final.
Bavuma was handed the WTC mace by International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman Jay Shah as the entire South Africa team celebrated like there is no tomorrow. This is only their second-ever ICC trophy so them and their fans are going to celebrate it to the fullest.
Notably, the Proteas won their first-ever ICC trophy back in 1998 when they defeated the West Indies in the final of the ICC Knockout Trophy. This one-day tournament was later renamed as the ICC Champions Trophy and is still known by that name today. At that time, the South Africa team was captained by Hansie Cronje.
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