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South Africa Champions went on to defeat Australia Champions by a huge margin of 95 runs in their final league match of the World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025 at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. With this win, SA Champions, who already advanced to the semi-finals, now finished at the top of the points table. For the Proteas, skipper AB de Villiers led from the front with his fiery knock of 123 runs.
Talking about the match, batting first after winning the toss, South Africa Champions got a flying start as Ab de Villiers and JJ Smuts put up an opening partnership of 187 runs in 13.3 overs. De Villiers completed his hundred in just 39 balls and got out after smashing 123(46) hitting 15 fours and eight sixes. On the other hand, Smuts got out after scoring 85 runs off 53 balls hitting 10 fours and three sixes as South Africa Champions posted a mammoth 241/6 on board.
Aaron Phangiso’s match-winning figures guide SA Champions to massive win
However, after both the openers went back to the pavilion, the middle-order completely collapsed as none of the other batters could even cross 20 runs as South Africa Champions crossed 240 runs after the end of their overs. For Australia Champions, Peter Siddle took three wickets, while Dan Christian, Steeve O’ Keefe and skipper Brett Lee scalped a wicket each. Now, Australia Champions need 242 runs to register third consecutive win in the ongoing WCL 2025.
Chasing the winning target, Australia Champions had a disastrous start as they lost their first wicket on the very first ball of the innings by Imran Tahir. Australia couldn’t recover from this as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out for 146 runs in 16.4 overs, Ben Cutting was top scorer with a knock of 59*(29) runs. For SA Champions, Aaron Phangiso registered match-winning figures of 4/13, Imran Tahir took three wickets, Wayne Parnell took two, while Hardus Viljoen put one in his bag.
