Former South African captain and ICC Hall of Famer Graeme Smith praised South Africa’s performance on Day Three of the ongoing WTC Final 2025 at Lord’s. While speaking to Crystal Arnold in ICC’s Digital Daily, Smith expressed his views on how the Proteas emerged strongly against a dominant Australian side, who had controlled the match with their pace attack over the first two days.
The third day, however, saw South Africa’s batters deliver an exemplary performance after a slow start in the first innings. “We’ve seen such ups and downs, ebbs and flows in this Test match. The game going back and forth, and South Africa fighting back from 75 behind in the first innings, bowling well, getting themselves back in the game.”
“69 runs to go for a World Test Championship” – Smith
Smith then went on to credit both Aiden Markram and captain Temba Bavuma for leading the Proteas close to the finish line. They need just 69 runs to win as they continue on Day Four.
“It’s been an outstanding batting performance. I think your instinct always tends to lie when you’ve seen the pitch play a certain way for the first two days, your instincts are always going to back that Australian pace attack on that surface. And then today the pitch just looked like it really lost its life. And South Africa had to toil hard to get those two wickets,” he said.
“But in the end, what an innings from Aiden Markram, and a partnership as well (with Temba Bavuma). Bavuma the captain came in and you just kept saying ‘extend that partnership, extend that partnership.’ And that’s what they’ve done. And 69 runs to go for a World Test Championship,” Smith further added.
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