Australia have booked their place in the World Test Championship 2025 final after beating India in the Sydney Test by 6 wickets. Chasing a target of 162, the Aussies won the SCG Test without much of an issue to clinch the Border-Gavaskar series 3-1.
Pat Cummins' men are into the final of the World Test Championship 2025 as they have set a date with South Africa for the showdown clash at Lord's from June 11 onwards. The Aussies are the defending champions of the Championship and now have Proteas against them who have won only one ICC tournament, which was the Champions Trophy in 1998.
While Australia have time to prepare for the WTC final, they have a reason to cheer as they have shattered a world record of India in the ICC tournaments. The WTC 2025 final is Australia's 14th final in ICC events, going past India's record of 13 final appearances in the global tournaments.
Teams to play or reach in most number of ICC finals:
1 - Australia: 14 finals
2 - India: 13 finals
3 - England: 9 finals
4 - West Indies: 8 finals
5 - Sri Lanka: 7 finals
As far as South Africa are concerned, the Proteas will be playing in their second ICC final. They were the champions of the first edition of the Champions Trophy in 1998 (then known as the Knockout Trophy) and were the runners-up of the T20 World Cup 2024, where they went down to India in the showdown clash.
South Africa reached the final of the WTC on the back of their favourable home season. They were pitted against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in two series of two matches each at home and won all first three to book their ticket for the Lord's final.
The Proteas had defeated the Lankan Lions by a massive margin of 233 runs in the first Test before overpowering them by 109 runs in the second game. The Proteas were put in major trouble in the opening Test against Pakistan when they were chasing 148 but won the game by two wickets with Marco Jansen's 16 and Kagiso Rabada's 31 doing the job for them.
