WTC FINAL, 2025
Starc celebrates his fifty © Getty
A Mitchell Starc-led last-wicket partnership of 59 runs frustrated South Africa for nearly two hours as Australia added 63 crucial runs on the third morning to set a target of 282 in the World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.
As Australia resumed from 144 for 8 overnight, Nathan Lyon lasted only nine deliveries in the morning before being trapped LBW by Kagiso Rabada in the pacer’s second over of the day. When Josh Hazlewood joined Starc in the middle, South Africa were sniffing an early close to their second bowling innings. However, the pair dug in to bat out nearly two hours as they forged a vital stand keep South Africa at bay.
It helped Australia’s cause that the ball wasn’t doing much on Day 3, as it did on the first couple of mornings of the WTC Final in overcast London, and with the sun staying overhead for most of the session, batting only got easier. Starc, on 14 overnight, went on to make the most of the conditions as he wore down the South African attack with a patient 132-ball half-century.
Marco Jansen returned to the attack at the stroke of Lunch and induced an edge which, luckily for the Australian, flew over the slips and into the fence to take the southpaw to his fifty. This was Starc’s eighth half-century at no. 9 or below in Test cricket – the highest for any tailender – and the fifty for the last-wicket partnership was also brought up with the same streaky shot.
Desperate for a breakthrough, Temba Bavuma even threw the ball to part-timer Aiden Markram, who began with a maiden and then eventually struck in his second over to end Hazlewood’s 53-ball resistance of 17 and brought curtains on Australia’s second innings for 207.
Brief score: Australia 212 & 207 (Mitchell Starc 58*; Kagiso Rabada 4-59) lead South Africa 138, by 281 runs.
© Cricbuzz
