South Africa finally ended their 27-year wait for an ICC trophy by defeating Australia in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's. It was a special moment for the team as they finally brought home a title after years of heartbreaks in the latter stages of various international tournaments.
South Africa defied the odds to clinch WTC title
Though Australia were certainly the favourites heading into the final, the Temba Bavuma-led side gave a sensational performance, outclassing their opponents in both the batting and bowling departments. After the South African bowlers had restricted the Aussies to low totals in both the innings, their batters stepped up big time as they achieved the target of 282 runs on the fourth day.
Following the defeat, legendary South Africa pacer Allan Donald showered praise on the side for finally ending the long wait for an ICC title. He remarked that the team took a lot of his pain away with the victory and also united the whole country.
"It's a massive, massive day in South African cricket, it's a massive day in South African sport. It's something that unites this country so closely. To get that over the line shuts the door that’s over 30-odd years old. Or maybe I've jumped the years a little bit, but it’s something that's taken a lot of pain away as you know. Not really going to go into that detail (laughs), but you know what I’m talking about with us and ICC events. This team, this group have shown, in the Test Championship, in the cycle, that they've had to win eight Test matches in a row… just showed immense character," Donald said on CricBlog.
Before this triumph, the Proteas had last won an ICC trophy back in 1998 when they had defeated West Indies in the final of the ICC Knockout Trophy. Donald expects big things from the current team and is already looking forward to their performance in the 2027 ODI World Cup, the tournament where they will be among the co-hosts alongside Namibia and Zimbabwe.
"But this team has shown… they’ve broken this deadlock now. I think this will… and hopefully open the door for more success. I already look forward to the 2027 (ODI) World Cup, I think it’s going to be a really interesting one. This group will be together. The white-ball group. A lot of those players who played today will be involved in that World Cup," Donald stated.
"I think today… for the team it will take some time to sink in. It really is a day for the past players who were involved in the ’99 World Cup and the guys who followed them, will know how close it was to be in the final, but I think we can safely say now that gate is now shut," he added.
Meanwhile, the likes of Aiden Markram, Kagiso Rabada and Temba Bavuma were the heroes for South Africa in the WTC final. While both Markram (136) and Bavuma (66) played crucial knocks to propel the Proteas towards the target, Rabada bowled terrific spells in both the innings and ended up clinching a total of nine scalps in the match.