South Africa End 27-Year Long ICC Trophy Drought, Outclass Australia To Win Maiden WTC Title

This is the second ICC trophy for South Africa. Their last ICC title came in 1998 when South Africa won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy.

Pic credit: ICC

South Africa ended a 27-year-long wait for an ICC trophy as they defeated defending champions Australia by 5 wickets to win the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 title at Lord's on Saturday, June 14. This is the maiden WTC title and second ICC trophy for South Africa. Their last ICC title came in 1998 when South Africa won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy.

The Temba Bavuma-led South Africa became the third team after New Zealand (2021) and Australia (2023) to win the World Test Championship (WTC) title.

Starting the Day 4 at 213/2, there were two other hiccups for South Africa on the fourth morning, with skipper Temba Bavuma (66) getting out to Australian counterpart Pat Cummins (1/59) in the third over of the day as the Aussies sniffed a potential lifeline and then Mitchell Starc (3/66) pierced the defences of Tristan Stubbs (8) when 41 runs were still required.

Despite losing the wickets of Bavuma and Stubbs, Markram stayed composed and waited for the bad ball to dispatch and made batting look relatively easy as South Africa inched towards the victory target. 

Markram fell late in proceedings with just six runs required for South Africa's victory. He soaked up the atmosphere and received a standing ovation from the appreciative Lord's crowd. His innings of 136 proved the difference between two sides in a Test where ball dominated bat for the majority of the contest. 

Eventually, Kyle Verreynne hit the winning shot to deliver South Africa their first men's senior ICC trophy since 1998. 

While Markram will win plenty of plaudits for his match-winning innings and deservedly so, South Africa received a strong range of contributions from their entire XI and pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada also played a vital role in the triumph with his nine wickets across the two innings.

Notably, both Markram and Rabada played together when South Africa won the ICC Men's Under 19 Cricket World Cup in 2014 and this victory is just rewards for the pair and a South African team that have had so many close misses in the knockout stages of ICC events in recent times.

South Africa XI: 1. Aiden Markram, 2. Ryan Rickelton, 3. Wiaan Mulder, 4. Temba Bavuma (c), 5. Tristan Stubbs, 6. David Bedingham, 7. Kyle Verreynne (wk), 8. Marco Jansen, 9. Keshav Maharaj, 10. Kagiso Rabada, 11. Lungi Ngidi 

Australia XI: 1. Usman Khawaja, 2. Marnus Labuschagne, 3. Cameron Green, 4. Steve Smith, 5. Travis Head, 6. Beau Webster, 7. Alex Carey (wk), 8. Pat Cummins (c), 9. Mitchell Starc, 10. Nathan Lyon, 11. Josh Hazlewood