South Africa shed their unwanted tag as nearly men with a decisive five-wicket win over Australia in the World Test Championship final on Saturday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Victory, secured by Aiden Markram's superb hundred, with South Africa captain Temba Bavuma making a valuable fifty, ended years of tournament heartache for the Proteas following multiple failures at the one-day international and T20 World Cups.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Below AFP Sport looks at three key points that emerged from a fascinating final at Lord's.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
More to Tests than the 'Big Three'<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Two of the three WTC finals have now been won by teams outside cricket's 'Big Three' powerhouse nations of England, Australia and India after New Zealand's inaugural 2021 triumph.<\/p>\r\n\r\n At a time when there are widespread fears that red-ball cricket could become the preserve of the Big Three alone, this is perhaps a sign of Test cricket's enduring competitiveness.<\/p>\r\n\r\n South Africa, however, will not be playing a home Test during the upcoming 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\r\n\r\n And several South African observers reckoned there were more fans supporting Bavuma's men at Lord's than had seen at a home Test in years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n There has long been talk of setting up a Test match fund to help cricket's financially poorer nations defray some of the costs of staging five-day games.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Such a move could improve the WTC, with the current format under fire because teams do not all have to play each other or the same number of matches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n "We want to play more Test cricket," said Bavuma after the final. "We want to play against the bigger nations. So I think this will go a long way in making us a lot more attractive."<\/p>\r\n\r\n Australia fail to prepare<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n With 28 wickets falling on the first two days, there was inevitably talk about whether the pitch was too much in favour of the fast bowlers on both sides.<\/p>\r\n\r\n But research by analysts at CricViz found there was in fact less movement in some areas than is typical for Lord's.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Not for the first time, minimal preparation was more likely the cause of the batsmen's troubles adapting to English conditions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Australia didn't have a solitary practice match in England.<\/p>\r\n\r\n The experienced Steve Smith was responsible for the lone fifty by a specialist Australia batsman in the final.<\/p>\r\n\r\n The title-holders still led by 74 runs after the first innings, after making 212, but Australia captain Pat Cummins said: "We could have batted the opposition out of the game by putting on well over 300 plus. We didn't give ourselves a big enough buffer and we let them back into the game."<\/p>\r\n\r\n Catches still win matches<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n The worth of the saying "catches win matches" was underlined by a sensational South Africa fielding display on the first day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n After Bavuma won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast fielding conditions, he needed his pacemen to be on their game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Kagiso Rabada, who went on to take an impressive nine wickets in the match, was on target from ball one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n But Rabada and the rest of the pace attack were backed up superbly as the South Africa slip cordon and wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne held several stunning catches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n