{"id":2808,"date":"2025-06-12T11:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=2808"},"modified":"2025-06-12T09:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T04:37:18","slug":"starc-leads-australias-fightback-in-wtc-final-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/12\/starc-leads-australias-fightback-in-wtc-final-thriller","title":{"rendered":"Starc Leads Australia&#8217;s Fightback in WTC Final Thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"126\" data-end=\"452\"><strong>ISLAMABAD: Mitchell Starc turned the momentum in Australia\u2019s favor as the defending champions launched a fierce comeback against South Africa on Day 1 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"126\" data-end=\"452\">After a modest total of 212, Australia\u2019s pace attack responded decisively, reducing South Africa to 43-4 at stumps.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"1116\"><strong data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"496\">Rabada Shines, But Aussies Strike Back<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"1116\">South African skipper Temba Bavuma won the toss and sent Australia in to bat under overcast skies, a decision that quickly paid off.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"1116\">Kagiso Rabada led the Proteas\u2019 charge with a fiery spell of 5-51, dismantling the Australian top order and leaving them reeling at 67-4 by lunch.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"1116\">However, Steve Smith (66) and Beau Webster (72) stabilized the innings with a crucial 79-run partnership for the fifth wicket.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"1116\">Australia\u2019s innings crumbled again late in the day, losing their final five wickets for just 20 runs, as Rabada completed a five-wicket haul and surpassed Allan Donald\u2019s career tally of 330 Test wickets.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1681\"><strong data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1156\">Australia\u2019s Bowling Turns the Tide<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1681\">In reply, South Africa\u2019s top order faltered under relentless pace.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1681\">Mitchell Starc made early inroads, removing Aiden Markram for a duck and Ryan Rickelton for 16, finishing the day with superb figures of 2-10 in 7 overs.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1681\">Captain Pat Cummins bowled Wiaan Mulder after a cautious 6 from 44 balls, and Josh Hazlewood dismissed Tristan Stubbs before the close of play.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1118\" data-end=\"1681\">With South Africa trailing by 169 runs and only six wickets in hand, the pressure is now squarely on their middle order to stage a comeback on Day 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: Mitchell Starc turned the momentum in Australia\u2019s favor as the defending champions launched a fierce comeback against South Africa on Day 1 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord\u2019s. After a modest total of 212, Australia\u2019s pace attack responded decisively, reducing South Africa to 43-4 at stumps. Rabada Shines, But Aussies Strike &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[32,1415,1416],"class_list":["post-2808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cricket","tag-starc","tag-wtcfinal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2810,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2808\/revisions\/2810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}