After years of near misses and failing to step up when the pressure was at its zenith, Aiden Markram’s gritty fourth-innings led South Africa to its first ICC trophy in 27 years when it beat Australia by five wickets in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s on Saturday.
After falling for a duck in the first innings, the South Africa T20 captain played the innings of a lifetime, scoring 136 off 207 balls to take the team to brink of victory before he was eventually dismissed.
When Markram led South Africa to U19 glory in the UAE in 2014, the Proteas had a leader earmarked to take over the next generation.
Markram had to wait three years to break into the South African batting setup, making his Test debut in Bangladesh in Potchefstroom and ODI debut against the same opposition a few days later.
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In the eight years since, the 30-year-old has been a mainstay for the side across formats, scoring 2857 runs in 45 Tests and 2371 runs in 77 ODIs. Despite aggregating ten hundreds in international cricket during this duration, he only managed an average of around 35.
South Africa fell just short of success as a team after Markram’s debut as well, losing in the semifinal of the 2023 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy. The 2024 T20 World Cup final also ended in a gut-wrenching final over defeat to India.
But, with their backs against the wall against the defending WTC champions, and with a formidable target of 282 to chase in the fourth innings, the Proteas leaned on the experienced pair of Markram and skipper Temba Bavuma to finally break their drought.
