SA vs AUS, WTC Final 2025: South Africa’s summit, Test cricket’s precipice

At Lord’s, on a Saturday heavy with history, South African players did what generations before them could not.

They held their nerve. They closed the door. They won.

They are the new World Test Champions.

This was not just a Test match. This was a trial of identity. Of how a team, long weighed down by the memory of collapses, could finally write its own ending.

Australia, seasoned and sharp, was the favourite. It was the defending champion and had arrived with a pace attack as incisive as any in modern cricket. But asked to pull off what was eventually the joint second-highest successful fourth-innings chase at Lord’s, South Africa didn’t flinch. Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma added 147 for the third wicket, steering their side to a historic win. Markram brought up his eighth — and perhaps most significant — Test hundred. Bavuma, composed and assured despite a hamstring strain, reached a vital half-century.

It was a day of tension, but of a different kind. The collapse and chaos of the first innings gave way to calculation and control.

Tactically, Cummins may have erred on the third afternoon. As Markram and Bavuma settled into their partnership, Australia’s field placements grew increasingly defensive. With the field spread wide, the pair collected ones and twos with ease, building momentum without taking risks. The pressure valve was released too early.

To be fair, Cummins was also up against a shifting surface. After two days of dramatic, low-scoring chaos where 28 wickets had fallen, the Lord’s pitch suddenly flattened under bright sunshine.

The lack of early turn and bounce blunted Lyon’s effectiveness. Both Bavuma and Markram were quick to adjust, playing him comfortably off the back foot, especially through square. With Australia’s main spinner neutralised and no reverse swing in sight, Cummins’ options dwindled. But the choice to sit back rather than squeeze the batters might still go down as a misstep.

For Bavuma, the moment carried weight beyond the scoreboard. He was the first black South African to score a Test hundred, the first black South African to lead the national team in the format, and now, the captain who has taken his side to the summit of the World Test Championship.

Most importantly, South Africa has now won nine, and lost none of Bavuma’s completed Tests as captain — these speak to a leadership quality rooted in clarity, calm, and conviction.

Markram’s innings will stand apart as well. On a pair, in the fourth innings of a final, he constructed, countered and ultimately conquered, eventually falling for 136. That this was his third fourth-innings Test century says enough. But context makes it richer: it came not in the calm of a bilateral dead rubber, but on the biggest stage his team has known in nearly three decades.

Aiden Markram of South Africa after reaching his century during day three of ICC World Test Championship Final between South Africa and Australia.
| Photo Credit:
Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Yes, it had been 27 years. Since the late Hansie Cronje led the Rainbow Nation to the ICC KnockOut Trophy in Dhaka, South Africa’s men’s team had won nothing on the world stage. In the 18 global white-ball tournaments since, it reached just one final. That, too, ended in heartbreak — in Barbados last year, when it squandered a position of absolute dominance against India.

The numbers have been well-worn: 12 knockout games, 10 losses, countless postmortems. The label — chokers — was lazy, but persistent. It became part of how the world described South African men’s cricket.

But not anymore.

Pat Cummins threatened to derail their charge with a post-lunch burst on Day 2 — a spell of 4.1-1-4-4 that took him to 300 Test wickets — but the game belonged to Kagiso Rabada, whose nine wickets, including a five-for, across both innings proved decisive. It was a bowler’s match, and South Africa’s attack held firm when it mattered most.

Yes, its road to the final came through a softer draw — avoiding India and England, and playing West Indies, Bangladesh, and New Zealand. But none of that diminishes the quality of their cricket or the resolve they showed when it counted.

Still, this win comes at a strange time for South African Test cricket.

As things stand, the men’s team will not host any Tests next summer — the first such break since readmission in 1992. CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki has clarified that the gap is not part of a shift away from Test cricket, but rather due to an unusually tight international window next season. The men’s white-ball sides will tour Australia and England in August and September, while the Test team is set to play two-match away series in Pakistan and India between November and December. Those outbound tours, CSA says, have compressed the calendar and limited the possibility of hosting home Tests.

That context matters. But it also doesn’t fully erase the deeper trend: Test cricket is being squeezed — not just in South Africa, but across the board.

The domestic T20 league, SA20, has claimed the prized Christmas window, with its next edition set to begin on Boxing Day 2025. That’s a slot usually reserved for marquee home Tests. Now, white-ball cricket is front and centre.

This isn’t an isolated story. The West Indies have long struggled to field full-strength red-ball squads. South African quick Anrich Nortje gave up a central contract to maintain control over the amount of international cricket he plays. So did Kane Williamson in New Zealand. These aren’t just warning signs — they are the choices of elite players reacting to the sport’s new economics.

Which is why this South African win matters beyond the trophy. It’s a statement that relevance in Test cricket isn’t reserved for the Big Three. And that the World Test Championship, despite its structural limitations, remains a necessary lifeline — one that offers meaning even when bilateral calendars falter.

Australia’s captain Pat Cummins (L) and Australia’s Mitchell Starc (R) talk on day three of the ICC World Test Championship cricket final match between Australia and South Africa.
| Photo Credit:
GLYN KIRK/AFP

Meanwhile, Australia won’t have long to dwell on the loss. The next men’s Ashes begins in November. England will warm up with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe and then host India for five matches. Australia will travel to West Indies for three Tests. Then comes Perth.

Australia’s attack remains formidable. Hazlewood, Starc, Cummins, and Lyon are all expected to continue. Scott Boland pushes from the fringes, but the main quartet still deliver. Their numbers in this WTC cycle — Cummins (80 wickets at 23.48), Hazlewood (59 at 20.45), Starc (77 at 26.89), Lyon (66 at 25.18) — show no sign of decline.

ALSO READ | South Africa becomes fourth team to beat Australia in ICC tournament finals

The sting sustained at Lord’s will linger. But it doesn’t signal erosion.

South Africa’s men will return to a packed 2026–27 summer, hosting both England and Australia for three-Test series. That’s the year Test cricket turns 150. The next WTC final will be played then too. Whether that moment becomes a celebration or an imminent elegy may hinge on how many teams still treat the format as essential.

This final proved that excellence still exists in the format — but it’s increasingly rare, and increasingly fragile. South Africa’s run to the title was stirring. But in a system that doesn’t reward consistency or guarantee regular fixtures, even a championship crown might not protect momentum from fading.