South Africa's Kagiso Rabada plays a shot during day four of the Test cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan, at the Centurion Park in Centurion. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe South Africa's Kagiso Rabada plays a shot during day four of the Test cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan, at the Centurion Park in Centurion. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe

Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada added unbeaten 51 runs for the ninth wicket to help South Africa win the match by two wickets in the Boxing Day Test match at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday. With this win, South Africa also became the first team to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2025. (Day 4 Blog | More Cricket News)

The hosts were favoured to win the match as they started Day 4 with captain Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram resuming their batting, needing only 121 runs more with seven wickets in hand.

But Mohammad Abbas, who bowled 19.3 overs on the trot, picked four wickets early in the first session to put Pakistan in the driving seat. Pakistan only needed two wickets when the first session ended.

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But Jansen and Rabada looked keen to finish the game as early as possible, as they took 33 balls to collect the remaining 32 runs to win the match. Jansen hit the winning runs in the 40th over.

Earlier, South Africa invited Pakistan to bat first after winning the toss at the Centurion Park. Kamran Ghulam made a gritty 54 to take his team to 211 runs. Babar Azam made just four runs in the first innings but that was enough for him to become the first Pakistan batter to make 4000 runs in each format.

Dane Paterson and the debutant Corbin Borch took five and four wickets respectively to restrict the visitors.

In response, Aiden Markram played a knock of 89 runs to give the hosts a dream start but no other batter contributed with him except for the debutant Bosch who went on to make 81 not out in his first outing of a Test match.

Pakistan's second inning was much more balanced with Babar Azam contributing 50 runs from the top-order. Saim Ayub and Shan Masood also got a good start but could not convert them into a big inning.

Saud Shakeel played a fine knock of 84 runs to take his team to 237 runs which helped the tourists set a modest target of 148 runs for the hosts.

Marco Jansen took six wickets as Rabada took a couple of them. Corbin Bosch and Dane Paterson shared one wicket each in the second innings.

Mohammad Abbas was quick to strike as Pakistan managed to get three early wickets before the stumps on Day 3. The stage was set for a thrilling Sunday and Abbas took four more wickets on Day 4.

Defending champions India will now face off against China, who beat Pakistan in the first semi-final.

Earlier in the match, a raucous crowd gave the Chinese players full support as they faced a formidable Pakistan. The game started slow with both teams struggling to find space in each other's defence. However, China kept control of the ball and made more attacks than Pakistan.

His spell of 19.3 consecutive overs is the longest for an opening fast bowler in his initial spell (across sessions) during an innings, surpassing the previous record of 19 overs set by Zaheer Khan in England’s second innings at Lord’s in 2007.

Australia and India are the other two favourites to qualify for the final of the WTC 2025 to be played at the Lord's in England. Both teams are playing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against each other in Australia.gppbet