South Africa were bundled for 138 runs in the first innings and following which, they were written off, especially after how good Australia have been in the ongoing World Test Championship cycle. However, as Harsha Bhogle once said, the beauty of Test cricket lies in the second innings as it always gives another opportunity to script a comeback and so did South Africa.
The Proteas bowlers, particularly Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi, looked ruthless in the third innings, picking up four and three wickets respectively. Australia were bundled for 207 runs and South Africa needed 282 runs to win their maiden ICC title in 27 years. In the final innings, the Proteas had a poor start as Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder departed early but Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma changed the complexion of the game.
Markram scored a terrific century at the Lord’s, while Bavuma remained unbeaten for 62 runs as South Africa now need only 69 runs to win the WTC final. They can smell the victory and speaking on the same, Mulder after the game stated that they took away the fear of failure in the fourth innings and were focused on punishing the bad balls.
“It took away the fear of failure going into this innings. We talked about getting whatever they get. There was a lot less fear of failure going into this innings. We had a chat about putting away the bad balls,” Mulder said after the end of the day’s play.
“Super session, both of them (Markram and Bavuma) have been through a lot, you can see they were drained, really nice to see two guys who’ve put in a lot for South African cricket do something special today. The surface was a bit slower today, there wasn’t as much nip and it’s got to do with wear and tear. Even when we were bowling, everything was happening really slowly, I’m glad we capitalised,” he added.