46 m. ago South Africa win World Test Championship after completing stunning comeback against Australia – as it happened

Aiden Markram scores 136 runs as South Africa defeat Australia by five wickets at Lord’s to lift the World Test Championship title60th over: South Africa 218-3 (Markram 106, Stubbs 0) So it is Tristan Stubbs to the middle. Starts at the non-striker’s end, but immediately gets strike as Markram guides a single. Lots of pressure on Stubbs, more a white-ball player but one of huge talent, who Shukri Conrad has backed in this team. Small target, plenty of time, and in a short-form game he might knock off these last 64 runs in five overs. But this is different. Hit on the pad early, Hazlewood appealing but it’s going down leg. Two slips and a gully, but the second slip is Webster and the gully is Green, so effectively four slips and two gullies. Cover, mid off, mid on, midwicket up closer. Deep point and deep backward square saving boundaries. Stubbs defends his first five balls.59th over: South Africa 217-3 (Markram 105) Oh, there it is! The first tremor? South Africa’s captain battled ...

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56 m. ago Aiden Markram helps South Africa beat Australia in World Test Championship final

Set 282 to win, 70 more than had been scored in any of the first three innings at Lord’s, Markram scored 136 runs.

Sport

99 m. ago South Africa win World Test Championship after completing stunning comeback against Australia – live reaction

South Africa chasing a target of 282 to win at Lord’sRead the latest edition of The Spin | And email James60th over: South Africa 218-3 (Markram 106, Stubbs 0) So it is Tristan Stubbs to the middle. Starts at the non-striker’s end, but immediately gets strike as Markram guides a single. Lots of pressure on Stubbs, more a white-ball player but one of huge talent, who Shukri Conrad has backed in this team. Small target, plenty of time, and in a short-form game he might knock off these last 64 runs in five overs. But this is different. Hit on the pad early, Hazlewood appealing but it’s going down leg. Two slips and a gully, but the second slip is Webster and the gully is Green, so effectively four slips and two gullies. Cover, mid off, mid on, midwicket up closer. Deep point and deep backward square saving boundaries. Stubbs defends his first five balls.59th over: South Africa 217-3 (Markram 105) Oh, there it is! The first tremor? South Africa’s captain battled through the pain yesterd...

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1 hour ago World Test Championship: South Africa end long trophy wait with tense Lord's victory over Australia

Aiden Markram’s sensational century helped South Africa to chase down 282

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4 h. ago South Africa v Australia: World Test Championship final cricket, day four – live

South Africa chasing a target of 282 to win at Lord’sPlay starts at 10.30am BST / 11.30am SAST / 7.30pm AESTRead the latest edition of The Spin | And email GeoffWho’s nervous? I’m nervous, on their behalf. The batters in next will have spent the evening telling themselves that they’re relaxed, but I’m sure there are thoughts flittering around, mostly that they would all really like to not be required. Australia need to turn that screw right away to have a chance.Then there was Andy Bull, who pondered the slips and the turn of fate that saw Steve Smith’s horrible hand injury. Continue reading...

Sport

5 h. ago Parklife 2025 LIVE: Thousands head to Heaton Park for day one of huge music festival with big headliner

More than 80,000 people will be heading to Heaton Park today

Society

18 h. ago Australia learn cricket’s oldest lesson as South Africa turn the tables in WTC

An Australian win looked inevitable after setting 282 to win, but Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma defied the oddsRight from the start of the day, there was an inevitability that this match was Australia’s. They started 218 runs in front, in the third innings, walking back onto a Lord’s field where 28 wickets had fallen in the previous two days. They had the four-star bowling attack, their opponents had the shooting-star batting order, one that had flashed and vanished in its first sighting. Soon this would be compounded by Temba Bavuma’s hamstring injury. The lead as it stood looked a chance to be enough, and first would come the chance to increase it a smidgen more.The sense of inevitability only grew as that smidgen broadened into a big dirty smudge. There is nothing more galling for a cricket team than a long tenth-wicket partnership. Every ball is more annoying than the one before. Things had started right, Kagiso Rabada in his second over of the day trapping Nathan Lyon with onl...

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20 h. ago Aiden Markram gives South Africa control against Australia at Lord’s

The Proteas need another 69 runs to win the World Test Championship final.

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20 h. ago Markram and Bavuma steer South Africa to verge of stunning WTC upset against Australia

Day three: Australia 212 & 207; South Africa 138 & 213-2Opener hits century and Bavuma bats on through injuryHeartache and South African cricket have not so much gone hand in hand over the years as been married and had a litter of kids. But provided they eke out the last 69 runs of what would be an epic run chase on day four, divorce papers can be issued and the World Test Championship mace will be theirs.At the end of a gripping third day Australia were left praying that South Africa’s habit of imploding at global events – yes, yes, the old chokers tag – might return in the morning. Guided by a sparkling unbeaten 102 from Aiden Markram, and the captain, Temba Bavuma, hobbling through a hamstring injury to finish on 65 not out, the Proteas had reached 213 for two at stumps in pursuit of 282 to win. Continue reading...

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20 h. ago US Open golf 2025: big names toiling at Oakmont during second round – live

Latest updates from day two’s play at OakmontOfficial live leaderboard | Drop Matt an emailBrooks Koepka finds the par-five 12th in two big bloots, then nearly makes the eagle putt from 26 feet. Not quite, but that’s back-to-back birdies for Brooks, a fine response to that opening bogey. He closes in on the lead at -3. But not such good news for his playing partner Justin Thomas, who three-putts from three feet and chalks up a double bogey. JT shot 76 yesterday, and surviving the cut is already looking like a pipe dream. He’s +9.Jordan Spieth can’t make his par putt on 2. He slips back to +1. Also heading in the wrong direction is his playing partner, the 2021 champion Jon Rahm. The 30-year-old Spaniard is busy rediscovering his major-championship form after some mixed experiences of late, and opened with a fine 69 yesterday. But his first shot this morning found a fairway bunker and led to bogey. He’s level par now, and has just hit another wild tee shot, this time so far left at 3...

Sport

20 h. ago South Africa defy the doubters and Australia to close in on remarkable Test triumph

Aiden Markram’s magnificent unbeaten 102 helped South Africa edge closer to World Test Championship final triumph

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22 h. ago Steve Smith suffers nasty injury after dropping catch in World Test Championship final

The Australia batter shelled a sitter at slip and could face months out

Sport

26 h. ago US Open golf 2025: players face another testing day in second round – live

Latest updates from day two’s play at OakmontOfficial live leaderboard | Drop Scott an emailDay one wasn’t exactly carnage – the course was relatively soft and receptive after rain earlier in the week, while there was little wind – but unless storms come at the weekend, something not yet certain, it’s not going to get any easier. And despite it all, there were only ten players in a field of 156 who finished the first round under par.-4: JJ Spaun -3: Thriston Lawrence -2: Kim Si-woo, Brooks Koepka, Im Sung-jae -1: Ben Griffin, Thomas Detry, Jon Rahm, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, James Nicholas Continue reading...

Sport

28 h. ago South Africa v Australia: World Test Championship final cricket, day three – live

Updates from the third day of the WTC final at Lord’sRead the latest edition of The Spin | And email GeoffThis is mine, with the Australian perspective on Pat Cummins’ remarkable day, and what influence a certain member of the nouveau landed gentry might have had.Here’s Simon Burnton with the press conference reporting, where David ‘Bedding In’ Bedingham is upbeat about knocking off the Aussies. Continue reading...

Sport

42 h. ago Cummins and Rabada lead from the front on a breathless second day at Lord’s | Geoff Lemon

Australia and South Africa had plenty of reasons to be grateful to their respective spearheads as the WTC final progressed at a rapid paceYou would have to call the combination incongruous. In one of the clips doing the digital rounds before the World Test Championship, there was Pat Cummins on Jeremy Clarkson’s farm programme, having apparently just raided the activewear section, the men around him wearing those vests that help rich people believe themselves to be rugged outdoor types. It’s hard to imagine much affinity between the two, sitting presumably at a wooden farmhouse table over Clarkson’s rustic bean soup and a heel of crusty bread, talking their way to a cordial entente about carbon emissions. But there was the Australian captain nonetheless, affably rolling an arm over while a farm type plonked a rubber ball on to a nearby shed, the bowler smiling in that way that suggests a shrug as Clarkson sledged him in a most British fashion.By the second day of the World Test Cham...

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42 h. ago South Africa have ‘massive belief’ they can stun Australia, insists David Bedingham

Batter confident despite 218-run deficit in WTC finalPat Cummins hails ‘brilliant’ Alex Carey for rescue actThe destiny of the mace may still be in the balance but David Bedingham admitted Australia’s bowlers had already “shown they’re the best in the world” in bowling South Africa out for 138 on the second day of the World Test Championship final. Pat Cummins claimed six wickets to put his team in the ascendancy but on a whirligig day of constantly oscillating fortunes, the Proteas promptly bowled themselves back into contention, with Australia reaching stumps on 144 for eight, nursing a lead of 218.“It’s an amazing chance, and we’re all excited about the opportunity to win,” said Bedingham. “It could go either way but us as a team are very, very excited and there’s a lot of belief in the dressing room. We’re very confident. When they started batting in their second innings we would definitely have taken this score. So very confident, there’s massive belief in this team.” Continue ...

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44 h. ago Australia and South Africa wickets tumble to leave WTC final on a knife

Day two: Australia 212 & 144-8; South Africa 138Proteas battle back after Pat Cummins’ early blitzThis final has been dubbed “The Ultimate Test” and though almost certainly the product of a W1A-style ideas splurge back in Dubai, this tagline scarcely felt more appropriate watching the wickets tumble for a second successive day.It had looked for all money like Pat Cummins had sealed the fate of the World Test Championship mace. Thundering in from the Nursery End, a four-wicket burst after lunch had seen him claim six for 28 and with South Africa all out for 138 in 57.1 overs – 74 behind – all it needed was a further top-up of runs. Continue reading...

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44 h. ago Captain Pat Cummins answers Australia’s call before South Africa roar back in rollercoaster final

Cummins took six wickets to put Australia in the ascendancy before a late collapse kept South Africa’s hopes much alive

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48 h. ago Sir Bob Geldof brands Elon Musk a 'sociopathic loser' in blistering tirade against UK and US leaders

The outspoken campaigner appeared on stage on Wednesday following a performance of Just For One Day, the musical inspired by the 1985 Live Aid concerts

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52 h. ago Just for One Day: The Live Aid musical review: 'frustratingly shallow'

This musical telling of the Live Aid story has its moments but fails to hit the heights or delve into the depths

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