World Test Championship shows its worth at Lord’s

In the first day’s play in the 2025 World Test Championship on June 11 at Lord’s, South Africa bowled Australia out for 212 in 56.4 overs. In the final session of the day, South Africa’s response stumbled badly, as the innings slumped to 43 for four against Australia’s relentless trio of quick bowlers. At that point, there was a feeling that this could be a mismatch.

It was not so much that South Africa lost early wickets, it was the lack of positivity in the approach. In a callow innings, Wiaan Mulder scored six runs in facing 44 deliveries, looking barely capable of putting bat on ball. The responsibilities of captaincy seemed to weigh heavily on Temba Bavuma, who scored three from 37 deliveries. Bowlers were in the ascendency throughout the day, high class shining though.

Kagiso Rabada had come into the match under a cloud, following a one-month ban for a positive testing for cocaine use. His response was to claim five wickets for 51 runs. These took his tally of Test wickets to 331, past Allan Donald on South Africa’s all-time list, cementing his reputation as one of cricket’s finest fast bowlers. Conditions were helpful to bowlers, cloud cover persuading Bavuma to ask Australia to bat. The decision was vindicated until that late flurry of lost wickets in South Africa’s response.

In addition, it must be said that Australia’s batters looked underprepared. The team had not played a Test match since February. Several of them had been playing in the Indian Premier League, but that has different demands to Test cricket. Admittedly, two batters had been acclimatizing by playing English county cricket but that has lower demands than the Test arena. On the other hand, South Africa’s squad had united to play warm-up