Of Victories, Losses, and Redemption – South Africa the Test Champions!

In the past, on these pages, I've written about my love for the South African cricket team. There have been so many heartbreaks, what-ifs, if-onlys, near misses, and so close but yet so far. 

Let's just look at the past 12-18 months as a build-up to this moment.

The South African board has been facing some financial difficulties for a fair period now. They attempted to raise funds by starting a domestic T20 league and after a few unsuccessful attempts, they finally launched in Feb '23. Following that, they had the second season in Feb '24. What that also meant was that all the marquee players were playing in the domestic T20 league and of the 14 players they sent to New Zealand, seven were making their Test debuts (Cricinfo link for article). They lost that series 2-0.

June '24 was the T20 World Cup final between India and South Africa (match scorecard). Having played well through the tournament, South Africa were now in a solid position, 16 overs into their run chase in the final. They needed about 26 runs from 4 overs, with 6 wickets in hand and two of their best hitting batsmen – Heinrich Klaasen & David Miller – set at the crease. Win percentage was around 90%. Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya had other plans and they lost by 7 runs.

Let's pause for a bit and take a detour. For the past few years now, India, Australia, and England have become the big 3 revenue generators in Cricket. They are also the ones who get to set a lot of terms of play, including on scheduling, number of matches a team plays in Tests, share of revenue to the different boards and so on. Given the windows that need to be kept aside for IPL, ODI world cup, T20 world cup etc., only the series involving these three teams tend to be of 4-5 match series. Other teams get series of 2-3 matches.

Given the format of Test championship, where the total number of points from a given series are fixed, with fewer matches in a given series, each match carries a lot more points, reducing the margin for error and increasing the impact of 'one bad match'. Besides, a long series allows a given team to get more accustomed to the conditions and opposing team's cadence.

India, Australia, and England each played 19, 19, and 22 matches respectively. New Zealand and Pakistan were the next at 14 matches each. South Africa and Bangladesh had the lowest - at 12 each.

So, in August '24 when SA was preparing for its two match tour of West Indies, SA needed to win at least 7 out of 8 remaining matches to stand a chance to be in the finals. And Test matches have a lot of draws, rain washouts etc., too. The first match against West Indies was drawn.

And, yet, before the finals against Australia, South Africa were on a streak of 7 consecutive wins! (Sidenote: Firdose Moonda has their journey to the finals here on cricinfo.)

Pause again now. There's this fabulous rant by Ahmer Naqvi (link to his excellent youtube channel on cricket; he's also otherwise famous on old twitter/blogosphere by the name of Karachikhatmal) about the beasts that Australia are in ICC tournaments, especially in finals. Strongly recommend checking out this 6 mins deliciously UNHINGED (and I say that in the most positive manner possible!) rant in Hindi/Urdu about how cricket is probably fourth or fifth on the list of sports in Australia, and yet the most random of Aussie players have just gotten up and won a world cup/ICC trophy.

Australia have lost one final in the past 15-20 years in ICC knock-out matches. And here's South Africa's history with ICC trophies (technically, even they've lost only one final).

Very movable object meeting the very unstoppable force.

Temba Bavuma – the South African captain – his name translates to 'hope'. And there was hope with a lot of trepidation. The match ebbed and flowed, with Australia on the backfoot initially, followed by pushing SA back. Day 3 ended with South Africa needing 69 runs to win, and having 8 wickets in hand.

For fans of South African cricket, this was familiar territory. They had lost the T20 final from an even more comfortable position, less than a year ago.

And then it got closer. 

Under 30 needed. 

Under 20 needed. 

Under 10 needed. 

Two wickets did fall earlier in the day but things were going surprisingly smooth. AB de Villiers – a generational talent for them – was in the crowd. Graeme Smith – possibly the best and most successful SA captain – had come down to the boundary from the commentary box. Shaun Pollock – another former SA captain and someone who had seen this play out to sadder ends in the past – was in the commentary box.

And there it was! 

In line with many other first-time victors of 2025 (RCB in IPL, Paris Saint Germaine in UEFA etc.) we had the new test champions!

There have been more formidable South African teams, and teams consisting of genuine cricketing legends. But, it was Temba Bavuma and his men who have carried it to a eight-match winning streak, and be crowned world champions.

There's hope that it also helps the revival of cricket in South Africa and eases their board's financial issues.

But, that's for the future. 

For now, a few more images of the absolute stunning scenes!