The World Test Championship Final 2025 will happen at Lord’s. Australia and South Africa will play this important match. Both teams usually use Kookaburra balls in their home games. But ICC has made a big decision about this.
The cricket board decided to use Dukes balls instead. This change could affect how the match goes. Both teams must adapt to this different ball quickly.
The Dukes Ball Makes a Big Difference
The Dukes ball behaves very differently from the Kookaburra ball. It swings more in the air during bowling. The seam also moves more off the pitch.
Dukes balls have a pronounced seam and special lacquer coating. This helps bowlers get more movement from deliveries. Batsmen find it harder to play such balls.
Both Australia and South Africa have excellent bowling attacks. Their fast bowlers can use Dukes balls very well. South Africa has Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, and Keshav Maharaj.
Australia brings Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Mitchell Starc. These two teams have half of the world’s top bowlers. The Dukes ball will help them bowl even better.
South Africa’s Coach Speaks Out
Ashwell Prince coaches South Africa’s batting team currently. He thinks the ball change is fair enough. Both teams face the same conditions during the match.
Prince believes both bowling attacks can exploit Dukes balls effectively. Neither team gets an unfair advantage from this decision.
South Africa finished first in WTC standings this cycle. They won just 8 matches out of 12 games. The percentage-based ranking system helped them reach the final.
Australia won 13 matches in their 19 games played. England won 11 matches and India won 9 games. These teams played more matches than South Africa did.
Prince supports the current final format despite these differences. Teams cannot play equal fixtures in this system.
Practice Match Against Zimbabwe
South Africa played Zimbabwe at Arundel Ground recently. Rain delayed the start of this practice match. South Africa scored 313 runs for 2 wickets only.
They batted for 79 overs in total. Rickelton scored 62 runs while batting well throughout. Bavuma made 58 runs and Stubbs also scored 58.
Wiaan Mulder batted at number 3 position surprisingly. This might be a tactical test for finals. Coaches often try new things in practice games.
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Rabada and Ngidi bowled very threatening spells today. Rabada hit Ben Curran with a rising delivery. The batsman got injured and needed medical attention immediately.
Ngidi broke a cricket bat with his fast bowling. Both bowlers looked ready for the big final match.
Ben Curran retired hurt and went for X-rays. He might miss the upcoming Test series now. Weather forecasts show 83% rain chances tomorrow, unfortunately.
