There and back again: South Africa look to come full circle at Lord's

South Africa have done it before: become world Test champions (though it was not called the World Test Championship then) at Lord's. Though much has changed in the 13 years since, two of the architects of their success in 2012 believe the class of 2025 can do it again. Former captain Graeme Smith and player of the match in the Lord's Test, Vernon Philander, spoke about their experiences of handling pressure, playing the mental game and what it meant to become No. 1.

When we was fab
By the time South Africa got to England, they had been hovering near the top of the Test rankings for years, had a reputation as a formidable outfit, and won consistently away from home. Back then they were unbeaten for six years and eight series on the road and believed they had earned the right to be called the best.

"It started for us in '07, when we started to build a style of play, the right type of personnel, and a batting unit that could perform consistently as a top six," Smith says. "We also had a really well-rounded attack that offered me enough options. We had wicket takers, we had bounce, we had solid spin options, and having allrounders like [Jacques] Kallis and [AB] de Villiers gives you options as well."

After Hashim Amla's triple-hundred at The Oval and a weather-affected draw at Headingley, South Africa went to Lord's 1-0 up.

No one reached three figures in a first-innings total of 309, and things were kept even when they bowled England out for 315. Amla scored another century in the second innings and South Africa set England a target of 346. England were 16 for 2 heading into the final day, 120 for 4 at lunch, and 208 for 6 in the third session. It was tense until the end.

"That was a great test,' Smith says. "Once we got to our second-innings total, I thought we'd be in with a chance because of our bowlers. As a captain, it was about holding your nerve, planning for the moment and trying to keep the game together, so you can then attack again. These are skills that I think you only get when playing and winning and through tough times."

Ultimately, Philander's 5 for 30 won the match and the mace. "For me, it was always about picking those big moments and wanting to be the guy that gets the team across the line," he says. "And Lord's is a special place - the history that goes with playing at Lord's, the aura of playing [there], there's so much to take in and to soak up. Once you walk through that members' lounge, I don't think you need much more motivation as a player. You look at the honours board and the names on the honours board and you want to have your name engraved there too.

"In that game, it was not like the bat dominated or the ball dominated but for bowlers, there was always something in it because of the slope. We used that to our advantage."

Here we are, tough road or not
That 2012 South Africa side travelled to explorer Mike Horn's home in the Swiss Alps for a few days before playing two practice matches in England. It was seen as unnecessary and outlandish but had its merits. "We got a lot of flack in terms of our preparation," Philander says. "We went to Switzerland instead of playing an extra warm-up game, so the English media were all over us, but if you look at the team's record up until then, we had a hell of an away record. For us, we needed to get mentally sharp before heading into that series. A lot of English media wrote us up as underprepared, but we knew what we were about, we knew our identity as a team, and that really came to the fore."

This time around, South Africa are playing a warm-up match against Zimbabwe at Arundel, which has been weather-affected, but half the squad has just come off game time at IPL and others were playing on the county circuit. There are fewer worries about match-readiness than there are about the quality of the opposition they've played - in the lead-up and throughout the cycle.

South Africa played neither England nor Australia in the 2023-2025 WTC period, and their only visit to the subcontinent was to play Bangladesh. Some of the pre-final talk has questioned whether South Africa deserved to be there. But Smith has bullishly batted that back and urged the current team to embrace the underdogs' tag.

"Everyone knew what South Africa's run to the WTC final was [like] and it just so happened that they went and nailed it. No one complained at the beginning [of the cycle]. It's just ultimately their teams aren't there and that's frustrating to them," he says. "The mental preparation for Shuks [Shukri Conrad, South Africa head coach] and Temba [Bavuma] is gonna be so important, because it doesn't matter what other people say, you have a chance to go and play a wonderful game. In your career, you don't know how many times these types of opportunities are going to come around for you, and it's about them recognising that."

Philander is certain South Africa have had a tough enough path. "You have to give a lot of credit to this team and the way they've gone about their work, especially the last 12 months," he said. "It's not easy to win in Bangladesh, let alone being a team that doesn't have any superstar names and with a lack of experience in those kinds of conditions. They've had to fight and overcome a lot of battles along the way. And in every series they just became better and better. The self-belief came to the fore. They're not dependent on a particular player. It's a matter of the guys really backing each other and believing in themselves."

Bavuma, Conrad and Co
Smith's captaincy was well established by 2012 - he had had 100 Tests in charge - and he was also among their best batters. Bavuma has had just two years of experience in the role, but in that time he has been South Africa's second-highest run-scorer. Smith says Bavuma and Conrad will have to manage the environment leading up to the final.

"Gary [Kirsten, South Africa's coach in 2012] and I had a very great working relationship. He knew when I needed to step in and vice-versa," Smith said. "When you get into that game, then Temba's got to control it. He's going to have to lead. In the build-up Shuks might do a little bit more. Then when you get into the Test match those roles kind of shift. Your captain's going to have to be a key performer in the Test match.

"It's obviously an exciting time for Temba, but it's also a big game. It will be about playing the moments, and handling the pressure as the game goes on. The thing about tense Test matches, in every session, as a captain, you say it's an important session, because it starts to feel like that. You can't have a soft session. They're [the team] gonna have to make sure that every session they're up for it and that they don't give away an inch."

A career-ending injury to Mark Boucher in 2012 meant South Africa had to make a last-minute tactical change to their team, which allowed them to lengthen the batting line-up. With AB de Villiers behind the stumps, they played with seven frontline batters, three seamers and a spinner. Now, they line up similarly, but the presence of three seam-bowling allrounders - Marco Jansen, Wiaan Mulder and Corbin Bosch - means they have an additional quick at their disposal.

Heading into Lord's, they have two main selection questions: who will bat No. 3, and who will be the third specialist seamer joining Kagiso Rabada and Jansen? All indications are that Mulder could be promoted to No. 3, with Tristan Stubbs (who was initially given the role last year) at No. 5. That leaves no room for Tony de Zorzi. One of Bosch, Lungi Ngidi or Dane Paterson will be in the pace pack.

For Philander, the choice is obvious. "Patto is going to be key for me," he says. "Lord's has a slope, so there will be natural variation in the surface, and for a bowler of his kind of pace [around 130kph], batters always feel that they need to play them and [they] very often get dragged into playing at balls that they don't have to."

An attack of Rabada, Jansen, Paterson and Mulder excites Philander, and though it doesn't have the star power of Australia's Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood, he believes they'll match up. "There's a beautiful mixture of skills. You've got Marco Jansen, he's tall and he can swing the ball. [Paterson] will be consistent and he can move the ball both ways, and KG [Rabada] is going to do what KG does best: hit the surface hard and extract movement out of the surface. And Keshav Maharaj is such an important bowler. He's going to hold things tight and he's going to allow those guys to operate, and hopefully strike," he says. "If you look at the Australian set-up, many would argue that they perhaps have the more senior of the two attacks, but it's a wonderful opportunity for these guys to go over and just do what they've been doing."

Does Rabada have a target on his back?
Experience, both in number of caps and winning ICC trophies, is not the only thing about Australia that may worry South Africa. There's also the love-to-hate history between the two sides, whose most acrimonious meetings included the 2018 Sandpapergate series. South Africa will be wary of the war of words that might be coming their way.

The first spat could involve comments to or about Rabada, who has previously been engaged in battle with Australia (when he shoulder-brushed Steven Smith in 2018) and has served a month-long ban for cocaine use. Rabada has already said he is prepared for whatever Australia bring, and even looking forward to it, but Graeme Smith hopes the topic will not be too much of a fire starter.

"The best way to approach these things is to just hit it on the head and be honest and say sorry. It's not like the Aussies have had a perfect record of not making mistakes. KG has been through the process. He served his punishment so the only thing to do is just to own it, and say sorry and get on with it," Smith says. "Playing in Australia, one of the things that really worked for us at the end of each day's play was to chill in the changing room and talk about all the stuff that we had heard in the day because that took away the sting of it. It became humorous for us. But then you've got to match it with performance."

The import of the mace
Having had more than their share of heartbreak, South Africans are too scared and scarred to dare dream of what winning may mean for them, but Smith and Philander, who have experienced it, can speak to what it does. When they became No. 1, they stayed there and kept winning for much of the next three years. When they were dethroned in 2015, it precipitated a slide down the rankings, and it has taken them a decade to rebuild. Smith now sees them as being on the brink of being the finished article.

"They're at that point now where they're putting those pieces together," he says. "For Test cricket to remain strong, you absolutely need South Africa. You need a South Africa that's competing and strong. We've seen when the team does well people are still engaged in Test cricket and want to support it. In a T20, one person can come off and upset the apple cart, but in a Test match, over a number of days, it's attrition, it's a test of your mental ability, and your skills can be tested dramatically. They've got talent and ability and match-winners, especially with the ball. In a one-off Test match, they definitely stand a chance. If it was over three to five, maybe it would be a little bit tougher, but in a one-off , I absolutely think they've got enough fire power to compete with Australia."

And if they do get there?

It will be the start of a whole new story of success in South African sport, which Philander believes will set a new high-water mark. "When you're at the top, you almost need to be training harder, you're more hungry and more determined to want to stay there. There's a new set of expectations," he says. "If this team wins the mace, there will be a new energy in South African cricket overall because it sends a clear message to the rest of the guys coming through.

"And I remember in 2012, for a couple of the younger guys coming through at the time, Faf [du Plessis] and later KG - the standard at the time was set. We lost that standard a little bit, but right now I can see that it is being upheld again and there's a real sense of pride in the way the guys go about their business, the way the guys train, the language being spoken in and around the group. I feel they've done a phenomenal job in building this team culture. Now it's just, go and do it."