Travis Head hit centuries in two finals in ICC events in the last two years, both against India, to lead Australia to victory on both occasions – at the 2023 World Test Championship Final and 2023 World Cup. Now, South Africa’s Aiden Markram nearly played through their second innings in the 2025 WTC Final against Australia and powered them to a historic win and Ricky Ponting thinks that his knock as good as either of the two aforementioned tons scored by Head.
“When you look back through big ICC events, I think the first thing that probably comes to mind is probably Travis Head’s innings (137) in the World Cup final, and then the last World Test Championship final (163). And this one’s got to be absolutely as good as any of those, considering the stage, considering where South African cricket’s been over the last couple of years, particularly their Test side,” Ponting told ICC Digital.
The Temba Bavuma-led South Africa side won the WTC final at Lords’ last week with a five-wicket win over defending champions Australia. While it was the side’s eight successive win in Tests, that mattered for nought compared to the fact that it was the first time since they won the 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy, which has since gone on to become the Champions Trophy. South Africa have since developed a reputation of a team that sends sides considered among the best before tournaments but would always crash out of them, mostly in rather spectacular ways.
This time, though, South Africa were clinical while chasing a target of 282 largely thanks to Markram’s knock of 136 in 207 balls, his eighth Test century. He had been dismissed for a duck in the first innings. Ponting said that he couldn’t believe that Markram was not part of the South African squad that toured Australia for the 2022/23 series.
“To be able to stand up and perform like that when your team needs you the most is what reputations are made of. I think everyone’s always known how good a player Aiden Markram was. And I must admit, a couple of years ago when South Africa toured Australia, I couldn’t believe that Aiden Markram wasn’t in that touring squad at all. He didn’t even make the squad. And here we are a couple of years later and he’s played one of probably his greatest knocks. I’m sure if you asked him, he’d probably say that that’s the knock that he’s most proud of in his Test career, and I am pretty sure his teammates who watched it all unfold would probably say the same thing. So, it’s a great individual achievement for him, and it’s a magnificent achievement for the South African team,” said Ponting.