The ICC World Test Championship Final between table toppers South Africa and Australia will be held at Lord's stadium on June 11.
What would happen if rain interrupted the final match?
English pitches are always covered with tiny grass and high humid conditions, which is always favourable for fast bowlers. England’s marinate climate and abundant rain are major factors in Test matches. In previous WTC finals (2021 and 2023), heavy rain and high forecast clinically affected the results.
In the 2021 WTC final India vs New Zealand—the first WTC final after Test Mace league shifted to league cum knockout phase—heavy rain ruined day 1, and that condition is an advantage for the fast bowler and toss winning team. Batting in English pitches is much more difficult than any other pitches. Commonly, batter’s perseverance and patience can fight back against conventional swing. In these pitches, there is a high possibility for losing wickets in a new ball, so basically the toss winning team selects to field first. Humid climate and continued rainfall in Rose Bowl Stadium (Southampton) boosted Kiwi’s pace attack. The Indians collapsed for just 217 in the first innings and 170 in second innings.
Another major speciality of English pitches are changes in pitch condition day by day. If the pitch is a pure bowling track on day one, when it comes to the final day bowlers probably struggle to swing the ball and favour the condition for batters. Most of the batting pitches in the UK will slow down after day 3, favouring fast bowlers for in-swinger, sometimes the condition support for spin bowlers.
Head to Head
Australia have better stats against South Africa; 50+ win percentage from 104 matches. Both South Africa and Australia have excellent pace bowling units. Experienced Australian bowlers, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have an advantage in English pitches. They have played more than five Ashes series in English pitches. Also, the top order batters of both teams, Temba Bavuma, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Aiden Markram know the conditions of English pitches.
South Africa were dominating throughout the league phase of 2023-25 WTC. The Proteas have the win percentage of 69.44 from 12 games and second positioned Australia has the win percentage of 67.54. The Proteas have included Tony De Zorzi to their WTC final squad. His latest performance in South African domestic cricket and his performance in WTC league phase is one of the factors that the Proteas became the table toppers. South African skipper Temba Bavuma changed his batting position to no.5 from the top order. These changes strengthened the depth of batting. The performance of Proteas’ fast bowling unit was top notch in Tests for the last three calendar.
The venue of 2023-25 WTC Final—more than 200 years old Lord’s cricket ground—is popular for favouring fast bowlers and the pitch loses its moisture when the match progresses, which is favourable for batters. Since 1980, Australia has played 12 Ashes matches in Lord’s—7 wins, 3 draws and 2 lose. Aussies players, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are much experienced in this venue. Weather prediction of Lord’s cricket ground during the final match days is 45% of precipitation.
