South Africa dethrone Australia with historic win in World Test Championship final

Aiden Markram’s superb century make South Africa win historic World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia after decades of heartbreak in major tournaments.

South Africa removed the unwanted tag of chokers on the global cricket stage as they sealed a five-wicket victory over Australia in the World Test Championship final. It is the first major title the Proteas have won in 27 years, their only other being the 1998 Champions Trophy.

At the start of Day 4, South Africa was 213-2, needing 69 runs to clinch the title. Markram and captain Temba Bavuma resumed their innings with scores of 102 and 65 respectively.

Bavuma was able to add only one run to his score before being dismissed by his Australian counterpart, Pat Cummins, in the third over of the day.

Following this, Mitchell Starc removed Tristan Stubbs for 8 runs, giving Australia a glimmer of hope for a comeback.

However, David Bedingham and Aiden Markram quickly extinguished that hope. The two added 35 runs for the fifth wicket, guiding the Proteas toward a historic victory.

Markram was eventually dismissed by Josh Hazlewood just inches away from victory, scoring a classy 136 runs off 207 balls, including 14 boundaries.

With only six runs needed to win, Kyle Verreynne joined Bedingham and contributed four of those runs, including the winning run, ending South Africa’s ICC title drought.

South African cricket’s reputation comes from a long list of near-misses in World Cup semi-finals, including falling foul to a now-discredited rain rule or coming off second best even when the match ended up tied.

Last year they reached their first major final at the Twenty20 World Cup in Barbados, but with only 26 runs needed off the last four overs, fell seven runs short as India snatched an unlikely victory.

WATCH: Smith leaves field injured after dropping Temba Bavuma in WTC final