ICC WTC 25 final won by South Africa by beating Australia.

The Final Match of ICC World Test Championship 2025 between Australia and South Africa is underway at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. This final match is being played from 11th June to 15th June 2025.
On Day 4 of the 2025 ICC World Test Championship Final at Lord’s, the match saw a dramatic turn of events with South Africa seizing control through resilient batting and clinching their first major ICC title in 27 years. South Africa created history by winning their first ICC title since 1998.
Australia in their first innings were bowled out for 212 runs on Day one. South Africa began their reply under challenging conditions and were bowled out for 138 runs only on day 2 thus conceeding first innings lead of 74 runs.
Austrlia in their second innings scored 207 runs giving target of 282 runs to South Africa to win. While chasing South Africa scored 282 runs for the loss of 5 wickets and achieved a historic victory over Australia by 5 wickets. South Africa won their first major ICC title in 27 years.
This was South Africa's second ICC Men's title win, after their Champions Trophy 1998 triumph in Dhaka. The Hansie Cronje led side had defeated Brian Lara's West Indies in the final then.
On Day four South Africa finally ended their ICC Trophy drought with a historical five-wicket win over Australia. South Africa achieved the second highest successful daunting run chase of 282 runs in the 141 years test history at Lords - the home of cricket.
On day 4 the overnight batsmen Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram started the proceedings for South Africa chasing history. Temba Bavuma departed early in the morning which raised glimmer of hope for Australia.
Pat Cummins with a deceptive delivery produced a soft edge from Bavuma’s bat and was caught behind by Alex Carey. He could add only one run to his overnight score and was out after contributing historical 66 runs from 134 balls hitting 5 fours. At this stage South Africa were 217 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 59 overs still needing 65 runs to win.
The highlight of the innings was historical title winning partnership of 147 runs from 250 balls for the third wicket between Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma which brought South Africa on the verge of historical triump.
Then Mitchell Starc gave another blow to South Africa by removing Tristan Stubbs. Mitchell Starc’s terrific delivery angled in between Stubb’s bat and pads and rattled the stumps. Tristan Stubbs made 8 runs from 43 balls and added crucial 24 runs with Aiden Markram for the fourth wicket. At this stage South Africa were 241 runs for 4 wickets in 70.3 overs still needing 41 runs to win.
Adin Markram continued to be resilient with a purpose in his batting and played the most important knock of his career. He slammed a memorable century and etched his name into South African cricket history. He added most valuable 35 runs with David Bendigham for the fifth wicket and brought South Africa just one hit away from the historical win.
He contributed valiant title winning 136 runs from 207 balls hitting 14 fours and was fifth wicket to go fall at the score of 276 runs with South Africa just 6 runs away from victory. Aiden Markram was caught at mid wicket by Travis Head of the bowling of Josh Hazlewood.
Aiden Markram walked off the ground with the dejected face of not finishing the match himself but he got a huge round of applause and standing ovation from the entire audience for his historical feat.
Then South Africa scripted history by chasing down a daunting target of 282 on Day 4. The two not out batsmen David Bendingham and Kyle Verreyne scored the required 6 runs for victory.
David Bendingham played well and remained not out on 21 runs from 49 balls hitting 1 four. Kyle Verreynne also remained not out on 4 runs from 13 balls. He got the opportunity to hit historical winning runs. He slapped the ball through the off side and South Africa became the WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP-2025 winners.
South Africa made 282 runs for the loss of five wickets in 83.4 overs and won the title trophy by 5 wickets. Mitchell Starc took 3 wickets. One wicket each was taken by Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Aiden Markram was adjudged the Player of the Match for the WTC Final 2025. Aiden Markram fully deserved this. He not only recovered from a duck in the first innings to slam a memorable century of 136 runs in the second innings and took his team to historical victory, but he also took the crucial wicket of Steve Smith in the first innings and the final wicket of Josh Hazlewood in the 2nd innings.
Aiden Markram scripted history by becoming the first Proteas batter to score a hundred in an ICC tournament final. He also became the fourth batter to hit a century for South Africa in ICC knockout matches.
Prior to him Jacques Kallis had scored 113 not out runs against Sri Lanka in the 1998 ICC Knockout Semifinal against Sri lanka. Herschelle Gibbs had made 116 not out runs against India in CT 2002 Semifinals and David Miller had scored 101 runs against Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023 Semifinal.