South Africa Seek End To Trophy Misery In WTC Final Against Australia

Johannesburg: South Africa captain Temba Bavuma believes his team can put their shocking record in knockout games behind them when they face defending champions Australia in next week's World Test Championship final.

The Proteas have won just one International Cricket Council trophy -- the ICC Knockout -- a forerunner of the Champions Trophy, back in 1998, alongside a list of agonising near-misses.

By contrast the top-ranked Australians, who beat India in the 2023 WTC final, have an enviable record at the sharp end of tournaments in the white-ball game.

They have won the one-day World Cup a record six times, lifted the Champions Trophy twice and have also triumphed at the T20 World Cup.

"It is different," Bavuma said ahead of the WTC final at Lord's starting on Wednesday. "Australia have had success. They know what they need to do."

But the 35-year-old batsman is adamant South Africa will not be overawed when facing Pat Cummins' team.

"For us it is about being confident in our ability," said Bavuma. "We haven't been handed this opportunity to play in the final, we have performed accordingly. We respect them (Australia) but it is still a 50-50 chance in our eyes."

Heartache has been the recurring theme of South Africa's history at global events going back to the 1992 World Cup, when they returned to the international fold after two decades of exclusion as a result of the country's apartheid regime.

South Africa reached the semi-finals only for a cruel rain rule, that left them needing 21 off one ball, to wreck their chances against England in Sydney.
That set a pattern for the next three ODI World Cups.

South Africa dominated their group stage in Pakistan in 1996 before falling to a Brian Lara-inspired West Indies in the quarter-finals.

A farcical run-out with the scores tied in a 1999 semi-final against Australia meant they were eliminated on net run-rate.

On home soil in 2003, rain and a miscalculation of the run-rate formula against Sri Lanka led to an embarrassing group-stage exit.

Not until last year's T20 World Cup did South Africa reach a major final.

Finally, a trophy was in sight as a rampant Heinrich Klaasen took South Africa to within 30 runs of victory with 30 balls and six wickets remaining.

But Klaasen was dismissed, Jasprit Bumrah bowled superbly and David Miller fell to a sensational boundary catch in the last over as South Africa fell short yet again.

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