New Delhi: At Lord’s—the revered home of cricket—South Africa finally laid to rest their long-standing ICC tournament demons, clinching the World Test Championship mace after a gripping, hard-fought battle against Australia Saturday, the fourth day of the final.
A nation that has worn the ‘chokers’ tag like a scar for nearly three decades, winning their last ICC trophy in 1998 (ICC Knockout Trophy) marking 27 long years, the sight of captain Temba Bavuma and his men hoisting the mace in front of a jubilant South African crowd was more than just a sporting milestone—it was the closing of a long, painful chapter and the beginning of a new era.
The final itself quickly entered the realm of cricketing folklore. Facing their old nemesis Australia, the Proteas stood one step away from destiny. Chasing 282 in the fourth innings of a high-stakes Test is rarely straightforward, but this time, the stars seemed to align.
The Lord’s pitch slowed and flattened with each passing day along with plenty of sun offering the South African batters a glimmer of ‘Temba’—which fittingly means hope in Zulu—as they pressed on and carved their names into cricketing history.
Even with just 69 runs needed on the fourth day to seal victory, old ghosts lingered. The Australians, never shy of gamesmanship, tried to needle the Proteas with pointed reminders of the dreaded ‘chokers’ tag—a label that has haunted South Africa on the brink of glory for decades. But this time, Bavuma’s men stood firm.
“The tag of us being chokers, that came about this morning,” Bavuma revealed after the match. “One of their players threw out the fact we could still get bowled out… Whilst we were batting, we could hear the Aussies using that dreaded word, ‘choke’.”
This victory was built on a foundation of grit and nerve. Aiden Markram’s masterful 136 anchored the chase, but it was his 147-run stand with skipper Temba Bavuma—who battled a hamstring injury to make a vital 66 off 134 balls—that truly turned the tide for South Africa.
Earlier, Kagiso Rabada had set up the win with nine wickets in the final. He claimed five wickets for 51 runs in the first innings and four for 59 in the second, completing a match winning nine-wicket haul that dismantled Australia’s batting twice.
The 282-run chase became the second-highest successful run chase ever in Lord’s Test history, a feat that seemed improbable given the venue’s notorious difficulty for fourth innings batting. The victory extended South Africa’s unbeaten streak in Test cricket to eight matches on the trot—a record for the team in WTC times. This surpassed the seven consecutive victories that both India and New Zealand had achieved in the first season of the tournament, establishing the Proteas as the most dominant force in the current WTC cycle.
Under Bavuma
South Africa’s journey to Test cricket supremacy has deep roots in the Graeme Smith era. Under Smith’s captaincy from 2003 to 2014, the Proteas established themselves as a formidable Test force, holding the number one ICC Test ranking for extended periods.
From 2007 until the end of Smith’s tenure in 2013, South Africa achieved the remarkable feat of not losing a single Test series away from home—a record that spoke of incredible consistency and mental fortitude.
Yet, despite this dominance and their status as the world’s premier Test side, the ultimate prize—an ICC trophy—across formats—remained frustratingly elusive.
It was under Temba Bavuma’s inspired leadership that South Africa finally broke through the barrier that had tormented them for decades. Bavuma’s captaincy record stands out statistically, matching the legendary Percy Chapman of England with nine victories and one draw from his initial 10 Tests in charge.
Bavuma’s unbeaten start as captain, coupled with his status as South Africa’s first black African Test skipper, brings profound meaning to this moment. But of all the layers to this victory, none was heavier—or harder to peel away—than the 27-year wait for an ICC trophy.
The catalogue of heartbreaks
The road to Lord’s glory was paved with devastating defeats that scarred the South African psyche. Most recently, in the 2024 T20 World Cup final against India in Barbados, South Africa came agonisingly close to ending their ICC drought. With Heinrich Klaasen in destructive form and David Miller providing stability, the Proteas needed just 30 runs from 30 balls with both batsmen set at the crease.
Victory seemed within touching distance, but a late burst of brilliance from Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep Singh—combined with a familiar flutter of South African nerves—turned what looked like a coronation into heartbreak.
Klaasen’s assault, taking 24 runs off Axar Patel in the 15th over, had seemingly put the game out of India’s grasp. Yet, the Proteas still couldn’t close it out, making it one of those agonising “so close, yet so far” moments that have haunted South Africa and its fans for a generation.
Aiden Markram, the star of South Africa’s triumph in the recent WTC final, reflected on the lessons he carried from his early dismissal in the 2024 run chase against India. That experience, he admitted, served as a constant reminder to put a price on his wicket. “I thought a lot about the T20 World Cup last night and how hopeless I felt sitting on the side after getting out. I was like, I don’t want to sit there again. So, this gave me a bit of motivation to make sure I stayed at the crease, if I could. But never once thought about the achievements and what would come with it. It was always about just trying to get the job done and trying to win,” Markram said in the post-match press conference.
Another South Africa defeat came in the 2022 T20 World Cup group stage against the Netherlands, a shocking upset that ended their semi-final hopes. Chasing 159, South Africa looked set at 90/4 in the 13th over with key batsmen like David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen yet to come. But a sudden collapse saw them restricted to 145/8, as the Dutch, being the unfavoured underdogs, sealed a 13-run victory, knocking South Africa out of the tournament.
The list goes on with possibly one of the most gut-wrenching of all South African defeats that came in the 2015 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at Eden Park.
Chasing 298 in a rain-affected match, South Africa seemed destined for their first World Cup final. AB de Villiers played a brilliant knock of 65 not out, while David Miller’s explosive 49 off just 18 balls had brought the equation down to manageable proportions. With five runs needed off two balls, South Africa were on the cusp of history. But Grant Elliott’s six off the penultimate ball shattered South African dreams and sent New Zealand into the final. The images of a distraught de Villiers and a stunned South African team became enduring symbols of their World Cup heartbreak.
Another one of South Africa’s most comprehensive collapses occurred at the 2007 World Cup semi-final against Australia in St. Lucia. After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Proteas were bundled out for a paltry 149, with Glenn McGrath claiming three crucial wickets including successive dismissals of Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher. Australia chased down the target with ease, winning by seven wickets with more than 18 overs to spare.
This defeat was particularly painful as there were no external factors to blame—it was simply a case of South Africa buckling under pressure on the biggest stage.
In the 2011 World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand in Mirpur, a similar pattern repeated where South Africa experienced another collapse that defied logic. Cruising at 108 for 2 in the 25th over while chasing 222, the Proteas seemed comfortably placed. But after Jacques Kallis fell to a brilliant catch by Jacob Oram, South Africa’s batting disintegrated in extraordinary fashion. They were eventually bowled out for 172, losing by 49 runs.
The self-destructive nature of the collapse was so severe that commentators suggested it required psychological analysis to understand.
The most famous and devastating of all South African defeats came in the 1999 World Cup semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston. Needing nine runs from the final over, with Lance Klusener in destructive form, South Africa seemed destined for the final. Klusener struck boundaries off the first two balls to level the scores, but then disaster struck. A mix-up between Klusener and 11th man Allan Donald resulted in the latter being run out, eliminating South Africa on a tied match due to Australia’s superior record in the earlier stages.
Donald later revealed he “needed therapy to get over it” and couldn’t watch the incident for years.
These are only a handful of the heartbreaks that have defined South Africa’s ICC journey, without forgetting that, for 27 years, every global tournament brought with it another chance for disappointment.
Back in 2003, while hosting the World Cup, South Africa’s campaign ended abruptly after a miscalculation of the rain rule in a must-win match—a blunder that ultimately led to Shaun Pollock stepping down as captain.
The Champions Trophy has been no kinder. If one statistic sums up the pain, it’s this: South Africa have lost five semi-finals in the tournament’s history—falling at the penultimate stage in 2000, 2002, 2006, 2013, and most recently, the 2025 defeat to New Zealand. The pattern of falling just short has been all too familiar.
This triumph at Lord’s represents far more than just a cricket match won—it is the vindication of a sporting system that refused to surrender despite decades of heartbreak.
South Africa’s journey from the lowest point of 26.67% in the WTC standings after three consecutive defeats in 2024 to lifting the championship trophy demonstrates the resilience embedded in their cricket ethos.
For a nation that has endured countless memes, jokes, and the burden of the ‘chokers’ tag, this WTC victory is not just sweet—it is the perfect expression of perseverance over adversity, making every tear shed in defeat worth this moment of pure, unbridled joy.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: WTC final win came on a sunny day for Rainbow Nation. It’s a new chapter for South Africa cricket