Lord's rises to Aiden Markram as the Proteas are crowned World Test Champions!

“Ole, Ole, Ole!”

The Proteas are World Test Champions!

A sentence so short but yet holds so much gravitas due to everything that has gone before.

When Kyle Verryenne struck the winning runs through the covers on yet another glorious sunlit day in St John’s Wood, the curse on South African cricket was finally broken dating back to that very first World Cup back in 1992. Chokers, they will be called no more. 

In a Test that had more twists and turns than a Simply Come Dancing episode on the BBC, it was ultimately Aiden Markram’s sublime 136 that stole the show and steered the Proteas’ to this historic five-wicket victory.

The only blot on this Proteas’ fairytale was that Markram was not there at the end when the crowning moment arrived, falling to a brilliant catch by Travis Head with only six runs still required.

But the memory of the entire Lord’s - bedecked in the green of Proteas supporters - rising in unison to applaud Markram as he made his way back to the Members Pavillion was the ultimate goosebump moment and will forever be remembered. 

Graeme Smith and his team may have lifted the ICC’s golden mace awarded to the No 1 Test side in the world at this very ground 13 years ago, but never before has a Proteas senior team achieved the distinction of winning a World Cup final like this team has done in spectacular fashion here at Lord’s.

A succession of more accomplished teams have left South African shores before with great optimism but only to return in disappointment.

Temba Bavuma’s Class of 2025 have seized the day and have engrained their legacy into the annals of South African cricket history. They will now be afforded the same royal reverence Siya Kolisi’s World Cup-winning Springboks are back home.

Markram’s reputation as a fourth-innings warrior has now been amplified to stratospheric proportions with this sublime effort of concentration, focus and power likely to be regarded as the greatest innings by a South African batter ever. 

The early loss of Bavuma (66) and later Tristan Stubbs (8) on this fateful fourth morning would have caused the stomach of every South African to churn like it has so many times before when defeat was stolen from the jaws of victory. 

Would Australia, the perpetrators of so much of the pain and trauma inflicted upon generations of Proteas supporters have had to endure before, summon one last ounce of fight from within themselves to set up the greatest choke of all time with 41 runs still required? 

Former captain Smith was certainly apprehensive as he paced up and down the Media Centre before steadying himself as he tried to contain his emotions on commentary. 

Fortunately, Markram was a lot more composed out in the middle as he patiently took each run on offer to steadily climb up a hill that had looked as large as Everest just 24 hours previously.

And even when Markram fell within one boundary of the target, the two Wynberg Boys’ High schoolmates David Bedingham and Kyle Verryenne, who astonishingly attempted a lap to hit the winning runs, finished off the job that will undoubtedly set off celebrations from London all the way back to Lansdowne. 

World Test Championship Final

Australia: 212 & 207 (Starc 58*, Carey 46, Rabada 4/59, Ngidi 3/38)

South Africa: 138 & 282/5 (Markram 136, Bavuma 66 , Starc 3/65) 

South Africa win by five wickets.