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CNA
2 days ago
- Sport
- CNA
Test championship win proves South Africa's cricket credentials
Victory in the World Test Championship final over Australia ended South Africa's agonising 27-year wait for an ICC trophy, and coach Shukri Conrad believes more success is not far off following a rapturous welcome home in Johannesburg on Wednesday. South Africa won by five wickets at Lord's to end decades of heartache in major ICC competitions and were celebrated by several thousand supporters at OR Tambo International airport. Conrad has been test coach for a little over two years but also recently took over the white ball teams. He believes the triumph can be a catalyst for success across all formats. "If you have a test team that is strong and plays regularly, that has spin-offs for the other formats," he told reporters. "When you have a good test team, you'll have good teams in (white ball cricket) because a good player is a good player." The amount of test cricket South Africa play has been a major talking point with Conrad previously saying it was no secret they want more games. But the new world champions are not scheduled to play a home test until October 2026, and will take a weakened squad on a two-test tour of Zimbabwe that starts on June 28. Scheduling more games is a complex issue given the cost of hosting series for cash-strapped Cricket South Africa. Conrad says while their financial muscle means they may not match the so-called 'Big Three' of India, Australia and England off the field of play, they can certainly do so on it. "We don't feel like underdogs and we believe we are one of the top teams in the world," he said. "We may not have played Australia and England in the league phase (of the World Test Championship) but we played Australia in the final and would not have had it any other way. "We feel we belong at the main table. (Being underdogs) was never a conversation in our team meetings. Everyone dubbed Australia as favourites, perhaps on the back of their experience more than anything else. "But we create our own reality and are the test champions now."
Reuters
2 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Test championship win proves South Africa's cricket credentials
June 18 (Reuters) - Victory in the World Test Championship final over Australia ended South Africa's agonising 27-year wait for an ICC trophy, and coach Shukri Conrad believes more success is not far off following a rapturous welcome home in Johannesburg on Wednesday. South Africa won by five wickets at Lord's to end decades of heartache in major ICC competitions and were celebrated by several thousand supporters at OR Tambo International airport. Conrad has been test coach for a little over two years but also recently took over the white ball teams. He believes the triumph can be a catalyst for success across all formats. "If you have a test team that is strong and plays regularly, that has spin-offs for the other formats," he told reporters. "When you have a good test team, you'll have good teams in (white ball cricket) because a good player is a good player." The amount of test cricket South Africa play has been a major talking point with Conrad previously saying it was no secret they want more games. But the new world champions are not scheduled to play a home test until October 2026, and will take a weakened squad on a two-test tour of Zimbabwe that starts on June 28. Scheduling more games is a complex issue given the cost of hosting series for cash-strapped Cricket South Africa. Conrad says while their financial muscle means they may not match the so-called 'Big Three' of India, Australia and England off the field of play, they can certainly do so on it. "We don't feel like underdogs and we believe we are one of the top teams in the world," he said. "We may not have played Australia and England in the league phase (of the World Test Championship) but we played Australia in the final and would not have had it any other way. "We feel we belong at the main table. (Being underdogs) was never a conversation in our team meetings. Everyone dubbed Australia as favourites, perhaps on the back of their experience more than anything else. "But we create our own reality and are the test champions now."
Khaleej Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
Bavuma eyes more South Africa success after Test final win over Australia
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma wants his team's triumph in the World Test Championship final to be the first of many trophies for the country's cricketers. In 18 previous attempts in the one-day international and T20 World Cups, South Africa had only reached a solitary final. That was in last year's T20 World Cup in Barbados, when they lost to India despite needing just 30 runs from their last 30 balls, with six wickets left. There was no such heartache at Lord's, with Aiden Markram making 136 and Bavuma 66 as South Africa chased down a target of 282 for a five-wicket win over defending champions Australia before lunch on Saturday's fourth morning. Bavuma, the first black African specialist batsman to play Test cricket for the Proteas, said his side had been inspired by South Africa's Springboks, who who have won four Rugby World Cups — including the two most recent tournaments. "This is special for this group, special for myself, for the country," Bavuma told reporters. "I have watched the rugby guys and the biggest thing I admire about them is the way with their success they have embraced what being South African actually means. "As South Africans we are unique in a lot of ways. Our present and future is shaped by our past and the way they (the Springboks) have gone about things has really captured the hearts of everyone. It's something we've spoken about and to try do something special." But, the 35-year-old said he now wanted more. "We hope this is the start of something. Hopefully this is the start of trophies for the team." Bavuma said he hoped winning the mace for best Test nation would lift the profile of Test cricket in South Africa, where no Test matches are scheduled for the upcoming 2025/25 home season. "We want to play more Test cricket," he said. "We want to play against the bigger nations. So I think this will go a long way in making us a lot more attractive, and also the so-called smaller nations." Bavuma added that his relatively inexperienced team had shown plenty of character but still had room for improvement, saying: "Even over the past three-and-a-half days we haven't played perfect cricket but we keep finding a way to get the job done." The captain said his players wanted to achieve the consistent success of earlier South African Test teams, in particular the sides that held the Test mace for three years between 2013 and 2015, as a result of topping the rankings before the introduction of a Test final. "We've said as a team we would like to judge ourselves after three or four years as a group," said Bavuma. "We would like to emulate what (former captain) Graeme (Smith) and his team did." Referring to South Africa's first opponents in the next WTC cycle later this year, Bavuma said: "We need to go to Pakistan and India and get those victories there." Markram, meanwhile, said he had not slept well after finishing Friday's play on 102 not out. "I even took a sleeping pill but it didn't work, he said. The opener added he had been motivated by memories of last year's T20 World Cup final collapse, which happened under his captaincy. "I thought a lot about the T20 World Cup and how helpless I felt sitting on the side," he recalled. "I didn't want to expose the next player in (to bat at Lord's) to a pressure situation."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Bavuma's brave team make giant leap for South African Test cricket
South Africa lost their shot at winning this World Test Championship in 2022, when their board announced the team were going to play 28 games in the next four years. They lost it for a second time during the spring of last year, when they packed their reserve team off to play a series against New Zealand because their centrally contracted players had to stay back and play in a franchise tournament. They lost it a third time when the team were bowled out for 138 on Thursday morning and they lost it a fourth when they let Australia's tail put on 134 runs for the last four wickets, leaving them needing 282 to win. Finally, after they had just about run out of ways to lose, they won. Advertisement Related: Markram steers South Africa to historic World Test Championship final triumph The last runs came hard and the winning ones seemed to be the most difficult of all. It was chaos on the outside of the old brick walls that surround Lord's on Saturday morning. It seemed every South African in the city seemed to be piling in to see their team win the World Test Championship and five minutes before the start of play the queues ran down and around Wellington Road, where the rush of latecomers forced the traffic wide to the other side of the street. But inside, the scoreboard moved like a stopped clock. 'We were trying to get it over and done with,' said Aiden Markram, 'but it just wasn't easy.' 'Even when we got it down to 10 runs,' Temba Bavuma said. 'You were on the edge, thinking anything can happen. I mean the belief was there, but it was pretty hard to accept that we were so close to winning something.' South Africa have blown too many big games to feel sure of scoring even the bare handful they needed here. Kyle Verreynne got himself in a hell of mess trying to pick off the very last they needed after the scores were tied. He ought to have been given out caught behind after he gloved the ball while he was trying to hit a ramp for four, but Australia had used up all their reviews. Besides, by that point even they seemed to have decided they ought to just let South Africa have it. After everything they have been through across the years, even Australians were not going to begrudge them this victory. Advertisement South Africa are not a great team, but they have just beaten one. Markram is not a great batter, but he played like one. Bavuma is not a great captain, but he has won a great victory, one which may turn out to be the most consequential in the team's history. After all those defeats in other International Cricket Council tournaments across the years, the consequences of losing this final were unthinkable. Now, the implications of winning could be incalculable. Bavuma drew an explicit comparison with the success of the Springboks, whose back-to-back World Cup wins under Siya Kolisi have done so much. Related: 'Chokers? This win squashes that': Bavuma hopes WTC victory can unite South Africa Bavuma is the first Black man to captain the cricket team and if previous generations fought against one strain of discrimination, he has had to confront another form of it by dealing with the lingering stigma attached to Black players in an era when so many white players have quit because they feel racial quotas are discriminatory. Advertisement 'For me to be recognised more than just as a Black African cricketer, but to be seen as somebody who has achieved something that the country wanted so much, that's something which will make me walk around with my chest out, and I just hope that it will inspire the country,' Bavuma said. And beyond. Bavuma spoke about how it was a victory for all the 'small' teams in Test cricket, which, these days, includes all nine Test playing nations apart from India, Australia and England. South African Test cricket is the canary in the mine and 18 months ago it had just about keeled over. Since then, they have found a way to win eight games in a row, a run that culminated in this famous victory. Bavuma and Markram both said they want to play more Test cricket. South Africa do not have a home series scheduled for another 15 months, when they will play Australia, again. 'What's important is to keep Test cricket as No 1 in South Africa,' said Markram. 'We understand all the dynamics in the cricket world, but for young players coming through, it has to be about wearing this baggy Test cap for South Africa.'
Arab News
6 days ago
- Sport
- Arab News
South Africa win first major cricket trophy in 27 years
LONDON: Chokers no more. The South Africans consigned the word to history when they ripped the World Test Championship mace from Australia's callused grip inside four days of a riveting final at Lord's. South Africa wore a new label Saturday — champion — by claiming its first major cricket trophy in 27 years when it wrapped up a five-wicket win. The last 69 runs required on day four were confidently knocked off by the Proteas in just over two hours — only three boundaries — with Australia typically fighting all the way to the inevitable end. South Africa moved from a portentous 213-2 overnight to a winning 285-5, the second highest successful run chase in the 141-year test history at the home of cricket. Victory laid to rest ghosts of heartbreaking losses on big ICC stages that have haunted South Africa for decades. The venues and dates are infamous in South Africa cricket, among them Birmingham 1999, Dhaka 2011, Auckland 2015, Kolkata 2023 and Bridgetown 2024. But London 2025 will go down as one of the greatest days in South Africa sports, when its cricket underdogs grabbed the advantage and didn't let go against a red-hot Australia. 'While we were batting, we could hear the Aussies using that dreaded word, choke,' Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said. 'It's been years since we've overcome a final. We've been etched in history, we're part of something that has never been done. It's special in a lot of ways. Also, it's a chance for South Africa to be united. We've got a cause where we can put aside our differences and enjoy. We just have to embrace it.' The stunning result also bodes well for South Africa's preparations for its home ODI World Cup in 2027. It's a different format, but the Proteas' mindsets won't be burdened by not having won a global trophy since the Champions Trophy's precursor in 1998. Australia didn't give up the WTC mace easily, relentlessly attacking the stumps and trying to prey on any South Africa butterflies. The desperate Australians used up their three reviews in vain within the first 90 minutes and fought to the end. But the serial champions lost an ICC final for only a fourth time in 14 chances. 'They were fantastic in that fourth innings,' Australia captain Pat Cummins said. 'There wasn't a lot in the wicket but they didn't give us a chance.' The Proteas were staunch, losing only three wickets on Saturday. One of them was Aiden Markram, the colossus Australia could not topple until it was too late. He resumed the day on 102 and was out for 136 when only six runs from victory. He spent six hours, 23 minutes in the middle. Australia didn't celebrate his wicket. Instead, players slapped Markram on the back and congratulated him on his match-winning knock as the Lord's crowd stood and applauded. 'Growing up, Lord's was the one venue I wanted to play at,' Markram said. 'To do it at a final and win is something really special.' About 15 minutes later, Kyle Verreynne hit the winning run, a drive into the covers. Markram and an injured Bavuma set up the victory the day before with an unbeaten partnership of 143 runs. They could not finish what they started, adding only four runs together before Bavuma edged Cummins behind for 66, one more than he had overnight. Markram was named man of the match. He also took two vital wickets, that of Steve Smith on 66 in Australia's first innings, when Smith became the highest foreign test run-scorer at Lord's, and Josh Hazlewood to end Australia's second innings. Kagiso Rabada had nine-for in the match. South Africa's target was set at 282, considered too far. But in a batting unit far less experienced than Australia's and considered a weak point, Markram and Bavuma chanced on ideal batting conditions on day three Friday and exploited them mercilessly. The turning point was Bavuma dropped in the slips on 2 by Smith, who broke his finger and didn't return to the match. South Africa was criticized by some before the final for its supposedly easier road in the 2023-25 WTC cycle — it didn't face Australia or England in a series — but it has won eight straight tests, its second longest streak in history. 'We've come a long way as a team, as a country,' emotional spinner Keshav Maharaj said. 'We always say we want to be good people and play good. We're moving in the right direction as a cricketing nation. 'After 25 years of pain, to finally get over the line is super emotional. We're so grateful to have Temba to get us over the line. Diversity is our strength, so to see the crowd, they stand for the meaning of our rainbow nation. To lift the trophy is going to unite the nation even more.'
