WCL 2025: South Africa Champions Beat Australia By 1 Run In Thrilling Clash At Semi Finals 2

The second semi-final of the World Championship of Legends (WCL) 2025 was played on Thursday, July 31, at Edgbaston ground in Birmingham, in which the South African champions defeated the Australian champions by just 1 run in a very thrilling clash. The end of the match was such that the spectators were glued to their seats.

At the beginning of the match, South Africa won the toss and decided to bat first. Captain AB de Villiers gets dismissed early, scoring six runs in just four balls, but the two batsmen who came after him scored runs in a stormy manner. JJ Smuts (57 runs off 41 balls) and Morn van Wyk (76 runs, 35 balls) made a great partnership and put the team in a strong position; together they added 111 runs for the second wicket. However, middle-order batters like Saral Ervi, JP Duminy, and Henry Davids could not stretch their innings for a long time. In the end, South Africa was able to score only 186 runs in 20 overs.

Peter Siddle emerges as the most successful bowler for Australia, taking 4 wickets. Darcy Short took 2 wickets, while Brett Lee and Daniel Christian got 1 wicket each.

Australia started off chasing 187 runs. Shaun Marsh and Chris Lynn added 45 runs for the first wicket; Short also scored 33 runs off 29 balls, but as the match went into the middle overs, the pace of scoring slowed down.

The real thrill of the match came in the last two overs. Australia needed 21 runs to win. Imran Tahir bowled the 19th over and took the wicket of Callum Ferguson, giving away just 7 runs. Now 14 runs were needed in the last over.

Daniel Christian was at the crease for Australia, and Rob Quini joined him. Wayne Parnell bowled the last over, and he conceded a six on the very first ball. Now Australia needed eight runs in the remaining five balls. Parnell made a wonderful comeback and gave only five runs in the next four balls. During this time Quini got injured, and Nathan Coulter-Nile came to bat in his place.

Now the last ball was left, and three runs were needed to win. Daniel Christian was on strike, but he could take only one run, and Nathan Coulter-Nile was run out, giving South Africa a historic one-run victory.

Wayne Parnell became the hero of the match, turning the match around by giving only eight runs under pressure in the last over. He was chosen as the 'Player of the Match' for his brilliant performance.

With this victory, the South Africa Champions have made it to the final, where they will face the Pakistan Champions. This final will be played on Saturday, 2 August, at the same ground.

It is worth noting that India had refused to play the semi-final against Pakistan, due to which Pakistan reached the final directly. Now it remains to be seen whether de Villiers' team will be able to show the same grip in the final or not.

For now, this match gave a lot of excitement to cricket lovers, and this match will be remembered for a long time. The one-run victory proved that anything can happen in cricket till the last ball.