Delhi: South Africa defeated Australia by 5 wickets in the final match of ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 played at Lord’s, London, and won the ICC Trophy after 27 years.

The Protiaz team created history under the captaincy of Temba Bavuma and gave a gift to the fans.

Earlier, South Africa won its last ICC title in 1998 as the ICC Nockout Trophy.

This was South Africa’s first WTC final, while Australia won the title by defeating India in 2023 earlier. After four days of play, South Africa became the winner chasing a target of 282 runs.

However, Australia has tried to return on the basis of bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, but he could not succeed in victory.

Accounting of match day by day-day 1: bowlers dominate

South Africa won the toss and chose bowling, to take advantage of the cloudy conditions of Lord’s. Australia’s first innings was reduced to 212 runs, including Steve Smith and Bu Webster added some important runs. Kagiso Rabada (5 wickets) and Marco Yansen’s sharp bowling prevented Australia from scoring a big score.

In response, South Africa started poorly and the score was 43/4 by the end of the day.

Day 2: Cummins Amazing, Australia lead

South Africa’s first innings was reduced to only 138 runs. Temba Bavuma (36) and David Bedingham (45) shared a 64 -run partnership, but Pat Cummins’s deadly bowling (6/28) broke South Africa’s back. It was also Cummins’ 300th Test wicket. Australia scored 144/8 in the second innings and took a lead of 218 runs. Stark and Alex Carrie contributed significantly to the lower order.

Day 3: Markram and Bavuma pair changed the game

Australia was all out for 207 in their second innings, in which Mitchell Starc played a useful innings of 58*. Rabada (4/59) and Angidi (3/38) bowled brilliantly once again. South Africa got a challenging target of 282 runs. In response, Eden Markram (102) and Temba Bavuma (65) overturned the match by making an unbeaten partnership of 143 runs for the third wicket. Bavuma batted struggling despite a hamstring injury, while his catch left by Steve Smith proved to be expensive for Australia.

Day 4 (up to Session 1)

At the beginning of the fourth day, Cummins made Bavuma (66) his victim. Subsequently, Mitchell Starc bowled Triston Stabs (8) to provide some relief to Australia, but Markram (136) and David Bedingham (21) He took over the innings again. Finally Kyle Verene (7) Also returned unbeaten pavilion.

Major performance

For South Africa, Eden Markram batted restrained and wisely scoring 102* runs in 159 balls in the fourth innings. He became the third foreign batsman to make a century in Lord’s and zero in the first innings. Temba Bavuma played a captaincy innings of 66 runs, showing patience despite injury. Kagiso Rabada took a total of 9 wickets (5+4) and became the first South African to take 5 wickets in the WTC final. Lungi Angidi played an important role in the middle overs with 3/38 in the second innings.

For Australia, Pat Cummins completed his 300th Test wicket with 6/28 in the first innings and became the highest wicket-taker in WTC 2023-25. Stark scored 58* runs in the second innings and took 2 wickets in bowling, including the important wicket of Stabs. Steve Smith scored a half -century in the first innings and became the player to score the most runs (591*) among foreign batsmen at Lord’s.

Significantly, the target of 282 runs is the second largest successful run chase in Lord’s (the largest by West Indies in 1984).