Pat Cummins’ Australia are on the brink of enduring a feeling that has not been experienced by a bunch of serial winners for over a decade. The senior core of Australia’s ICC World Test Championship 2025 final playing XI against South Africa at Lord’s have not suffered a defeat in an ICC tournament final, across formats.
For Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and have won every final Australia have contested in the last decade, including the 2015 and 2023 ODI World Cups, the 2021 T20 World Cup, and the last ICC World Test Championship final against India in 2023.
For cricket’s most successful international team, losing finals or ICC finals for that matter has been a rarefied event that their former captain Smith might be the first and only Australian player thus far to be part of two ICC finals defeats. Starting as a leg-spinning all-rounder, Smith was part of Australia’s last finals defeat during the T20 World Cup 2010 against England in Barbados.
Batting first, Australia could only gather 147 runs in 20 overs before England romped to a seven-wicket victory to mark their first ICC title triumph under the leadership of Paul Collingwood. Smith is the only member from that Australia XI to be part of the WTC 2025 final, staring at the possibility of defeat to South Africa while attempting to defend 281 runs.
South Africa are 69 runs away from victory and inflicting a rare defeat to the Aussies in the ICC finals, one that has only occurred once since 2001 and twice in the previous century.
Having won 10 ICC titles across formats, Australia’s first defeat came in their maiden ICC final appearance, taking on the mighty West Indies in the first men’s World Cup final in 1975. A Mark Taylor-led unit also missed out on winning the 1996 World Cup, losing to a belligerent Sri Lankan side, led by Aravinda de Silva’s century in the final in Lahore.
A defeat to South Africa will spell the end to a 15-year spotless record and only a fourth loss across 14 ICC finals in 50 years.
