South Africa need 69 runs to win the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord's on Day 4. The situation is heavily in favour of South Africa, with eight wickets still in hand, but Australia have not given up on the win yet. Australia assistant coach Daniel Vettori feels that a wicket early on Day 4 could bring Australia back into the contest. Chasing a target of 282, South Africa lost Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder early, but an unbeaten 143-run partnership between Aiden Markram (102*) and Temba Bavume (65*) put the Proteas in complete control of the game.

“There’s no desire to get ahead of ourselves," Vettori said in the press conference after the day’s play. “One wicket, that’s the starting point. And because these two [Markram and Bavuma] are in such control, if we can get a new batsman to the crease, then that’s the start of it [getting back into the game]. I don’t think there will be any thinking about how to get eight dismissals. It will be simply about getting one and seeing what can happen from there."

Vettori lauded the Markram-Bavuma partnership but said the conditions got better to bat on Day 3.

“Under those conditions, Markram and Bavuma were exceptional," he continued. “They were able to navigate their way through any tricky situation and then be able to put pressure back on us at the most opportune time. It was a pretty benign wicket and obviously conditions weren’t assisting the ball, but that partnership was exceptional," he said.

Vettori also shared an update on Steve Smith, who dislocated his finger while attempting a catch of Temba Bavuma, and said he didn't make it to the dressing room and went straight to the hospital.

“He never made it to us in the dressing room," he added. “I think the doc and the physio got a hold of him and took him to a separate room, so they had to deal with that. We weren’t really up to speed in terms of how gruesome the injury was. We just heard there had been a compound dislocation, something of that nature. There weren’t too many people running to have a look. We’ll just wait and see what the news is when he comes back from hospital and then everyone will be updated from there," he concluded.

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