Courtesy: ICC
In the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025, South Africa got the better of Australia by five wickets during the first session on day four, to win their first ICC trophy after a long-wait of 27 years. Aiden Markram was given the player of the match award for his match-winning hundred in the second innings during the pursuit of 282-run target after Kagiso Rabada had taken nine wickets in the contest, including a five-wicket haul in the first innings.
As far as Australia were concerned, they had a good chance of retaining their WTC title after impressive showing from the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, and Beau Webster, but their performance fell away drastically in the fourth innings. For once after a long time, when it mattered the most, the Australian players were unable to stand up as a unit in an ICC final, losing out on the WTC title.
Below are the three main reasons why Australia lost the WTC final 2025 against South Africa.
3 reasons why Australia lost WTC final 2025 to South Africa
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Lacklustre bowling in second innings
After bundling out South Africa for just 138 runs in helpful bowling conditions in the first innings with a six-wicket haul from Pat Cummins, the Australian bowling lineup looked lacklustre as the pitch improved for batting on day three. While Mitchell Starc did take early wickets in the defence of 281-run total, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins weren’t able to pick wickets under pressure from South African batters, while Nathan Lyon went wicketless despite bowling 34 overs in the match, most of which were delivered when pitch started to provide some turn.
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Travis Head’s no show
Travis Head was instrumental in the WTC final win for Australia two years ago with a memorable hundred against India, but he failed to make any impact on proceedings against South Africa this week. He scored 11 and nine runs in both the innings, losing his wickets to Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder, which meant that the lower middle order had to do bulk of the scoring, but it wasn’t enough for Australia at the Lord’s in London.
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Top order losing wickets cheaply
Australia put together a makeshift top order, to accommodate returning Cameron Green in the batting lineup at three, but their strategy worked against them in front of a fiery Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen with the new ball in both the innings. While Green was dismissed within a handful of balls twice by Rabada, the opening duo of Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne weren’t able to spend much time in the middle as well, especially the former, which put the pressure on the rest of the batting lineup, who weren’t able to deliver big scores for Australia either.
