South Africa will be chasing their hardest 69 runs on Day 4 at Lord’s, said Dale Steyn on Friday, June 13. Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma’s heroic innings have brought the Proteas on the cusp of history at the World Test Championship Final 2025. The team needs just 69 runs in the last two days of the Test match to finish their 27-year winless run at an ICC event.

Aiden Markram scored a measured century in 155 balls on Friday, while Bavuma, battling cramps, hit a sensational 65-run knock, helping South Africa to 213/2 at the end of the day’s play. The unbeaten duo walked back into the dressing room surrounded by a standing ovation at the Home of Cricket.

WTC Final, SA vs AUS, Day 3: Match Report | Highlights

Speaking after the match, Steyn pointed out the beauty of Test cricket and said that the Proteas will be chasing the hardest 69 runs of their lives, as Australia were not going to give it up that easily.

Day 4 also has a lot of rain predicted, so conditions could heavily be in favour of the fast bowlers on Saturday.

“The roller coaster of Test match cricket means that we’ll come back tomorrow and there’s still 69 runs to get. Now, it seems easy, but Australia are not going to lay back and give up this fight just yet. That’s going to be 69 of the hardest runs that the South Africans will have to fight for tomorrow. And if they manage to get it, I mean, it will be a fantastic achievement,” Dale Steyn told the broadcaster after the match.

“The UK produced a great day of cricket today. The wicket had flattened out, the sun was out. It’s a typical day of English conditions. We’ve seen it—the first two days were difficult. Today, it flattened out. Tomorrow will have its differences. It could be more difficult to bat again, it could be flat again. We don’t know, but it’s been an incredible Test match so far these three days,” he concluded.

Australia head coach Daniel Vettori reiterated Steyn’s point at the press conference on Friday, stating that it was a matter of just one wicket at Lord’s.