Lord's Chaos: WTC Final Delivers Most Thrilling Championship Battle

← Back

 

Lord's witnessed a chaotic evening session packed with incredible moments - brilliant deliveries, poor shots, dropped catches, dozens of near-misses, overturned decisions, no-balls, horror collapse and finally admirable resistance.

An entire Test match's worth of action was crammed into just 28 overs after the afternoon break. Following an extraordinary session, the World Test Championship (WTC) Final hangs in the balance: Australia leads by 218 runs but has only two wickets remaining.

As has been the case throughout this encounter, it's a position both teams would be disappointed with yet still accept. For South Africa, being two wickets away from victory with a 218-run lead represents a fantastic position, especially considering Australia held a 74-run first-innings advantage. However, at one point the Aussies had just a 147-run lead with three wickets in hand. From 73/7, Australia managed to add 71 more runs for the loss of just one wicket.

South Africa will begin day three with the ball in hand, feeling they should have had Australia all out for around 100 or 110, chasing approximately 180. A 218-run lead now looks excellent for Australia, as at one stage it didn't appear they would even set a target of 165. Yet again, they'll feel they should have had a lead of 250 or 260 with five or six wickets in reserve. At one moment today, they led by 118 runs with eight wickets in hand. From that point, they added just 100 more runs for the loss of six wickets.

Narrowing it down, this session revolved around two individuals: Lungi Ngidi and Alex Carey.

Ngidi endured a horror first day - conceding 45 runs in 8 overs without a wicket, while virtually every other bowler was on target. But he put that performance behind him to deliver an inspired spell that saw him dismiss Steve Smith, Beau Webster and Pat Cummins in near-perfect fashion. Smith's dismissal changed everything - it made South Africa believe, perhaps for the first time since the afternoon break on day one.

While Ngidi's bowling made South Africa believe, the performance that rescued and gave hope to the Australians came from the bat of their usual crisis man, Carey. When it seemed no one could middle the ball on a Lord's surface that was simultaneously doing nothing and everything, he counter-attacked in typical Carey style to drag Australia past the psychological barrier of 200. At 73/7 it looked like doom, but he added 61 runs with Mitchell Starc, who remains unbeaten on 16 and will aim to stretch the lead close to 230 on day three.

It's been only two days, but this is already the closest WTC Final we've witnessed across three editions.

The final hangs in the balance. The trophy is anyone's for the taking.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images