Markram helps South Africa close in on World Test Championship win
World Test Championship final, Lord's (day three of five)Australia 212: Webster 72; Rabada 5-51 & 207: Starc 58* ; Rabada 4-59South Africa 138: Bedingham 45; Cummins 6-28 & 213-2: Markram 102*, Bavuma 65*ScorecardSouth Africa need 69 more runs to win
Aiden Markram made a brilliant unbeaten century to put South Africa within tantalising distance of a historic victory over Australia in the World Test Championship final.Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had shared a stand of 59 for Australia's last wicket in the morning session of day three which appeared to give them the upper hand.Starc top-scored for Australia with a gritty unbeaten half-century as they were eventually dismissed for 207 on the stroke of lunch.However, any frustration South Africa may have felt gave way to a sense of what might be possible in more appreciable conditions for batting after the they were set a target of 282 for victory.A Lord's pitch which had seen 28 wickets fall during two days of cricket chaos suddenly looked a wildly different beast on a sun-kissed afternoon in St John's Wood with Markram playing a stellar hand.The 30-year-old has not played a competitive game of red-ball cricket since January but he batted with finesse during a classical Test-match innings which now looks set to define this seesaw match.Markram shared an unbroken 143-run partnership with South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma, who was hampered by a hamstring injury but tenaciously stayed at the crease to play his part with an unbeaten 65.The pair will resume on day four with 69 runs required to wrap up the win. A win which would more pertinently ensure South Africa end their long wait for a victory in a major men's final, putting an end to their tag as international cricket's chokers.That is unless Australia's bowlers can summon something quite remarkable with the ball on Saturday and provide an unexpected twist.
Markram puts Proteas on brink of history
The scale of the challenge facing South Africa when they began their innings was not quite the summit of Everest, but it certainly felt a fair way above base camp.At the start of their innings, WinViz gave South Africa a 38% chance of pulling off the joint second-highest successful chase for a Test match at Lord's.England chased down the same target against New Zealand - for the loss of three wickets - in 2004 while West Indies managed a nine-wicket victory against England in 1984 in pursuit of 342. In the 148-year history of Test cricket - in excess of 2,000 matches - there have also been just 26 occasions when the team batting last has scored the highest total of the match as South Africa require here.Having been rolled for 138 in the first innings, and up against an Australian bowling attack with more than 1,500 Test wickets between them, it felt like big ask.The burden of history, and data, did not seem to weigh too heavily on the shoulders of Markram and Bavuma, though, as bat truly dominated ball for the first time in this contest.South Africa lost Ryan Rickleton - who chased an away swinger from Starc and edged into the gloves of Alex Carey - early on for six but it not stymie the Proteas' intent. Markram and Wiaan Mulder were positive rather than tentative during a 69-run stand for the second wicket which provided a solid foundation.Mulder had reached 27 before he rather tamely chipped Starc, who had swapped to the Nursery End, into the hands of Marnus Labuschagne in the covers.That brought Bavuma, South Africa's leading run-scorer in Tests since December 2019, to the crease and he had an escape on when Steve Smith shelled a tough chance when he was on just two.Smith suffered a compound dislocation of the little finger on his right hand after shelling the chance and left the field to go hospital for further treatment.All the while Markram was quietly going about his business, during an authoritative and measured knock offering barely a chance.He carefully picked his moments to gracefully drive, square drive and guide boundaries alongside sensible accumulation on both sides of the wicket. South Africa's scoring rate slowed as the match headed towards stumps, but there was still time for Markram to reach three figures in the penultimate over of the day.Hazlewood strayed on to his pads and Markram effortlessly flicked the ball square for four before he took off his helmet to salute the crowd.
Starc's defiance unwittingly shows the way
Cummins had spied another 20 or 30 runs for Australia's last two wickets at the conclusion of the previous day.Australia had added just four more when Lyon was given out lbw - despite reviewing - in the third over of the day after Rabada nipped one back.South Africa hoped for a quick execution but for the next 80 minutes or so, Australia managed to dodge the guillotine.A Lord's pitch which had proved tricky for batters in the first two days - especially in the face of some truly top-class bowling - began to flatten out.In the morning sunshine, with barely a breath of wind, it suddenly looked easier out in the middle than it had been at any point in this final.With 0.5 degrees of swing and seam movement through the air and off the pitch, at that point the lowest of any session in the match according to CricViz, no wonder Starc and Hazlewood appeared so untroubled.Every run that Australia managed to eke out for their final wicket would have gnawed away at Bavuma who was, if we are being hypercritical, guilty of a slight captaincy misstep.With two left-handers at the crease he could arguably have posed more questions with Markram's part-time off-spin sooner than he did.Starc brought up his half-century with a slash over the slip cordon, but it mattered little - he had earned the right for a stroke of fortune.Moments before the lunch interval Markram burgled the wicket of Hazlewood when the Aussie number 11 slapped a long hop to Keshav Maharaj at cover and was dismissed for 17.Australia appeared satisfied with their morning's work - but in a curious way it had maybe given South Africa a psychological lift and was portent of what was to come in the remainder of the day.
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