Legendary cricketers Matthew Hayden and Dale Steyn slammed Australia for their defensive approach on the third day of the final at Lord's. After setting a competitive target of 282 runs for South Africa, the reigning champions lost momentum as they failed to claim a single wicket in the final session.

A valiant 143-run partnership between Aiden Markram, who remained unbeaten on 102, and captain Temba Bavuma (65 not out), brought South Africa within touching distance of a historic victory. The Proteas are now just 69 runs away from triumph with eight wickets in hand.

Earlier, Australia scored 212 in their first innings and South Africa replied with 138. A total of 22 wickets fell over the first two days. Pat Cummins’ side managed to snap up two early wickets on Day 3, with Mitchell Starc removing opener Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder.

However, Markram and Bavuma steadied the ship with a magnificent stand. Once the duo settled and began finding boundaries, Cummins withdrew his fielders from attacking positions, instead placing several in the deep to cut off boundaries. This allowed Bavuma and Markram to rotate the strike freely with singles and doubles, keeping the scoreboard ticking.

"You know, this defensive effort here from Australia, it was all about how they were going to take wickets and how they were going to do that early," Matthew Hayden said after the day's play on Friday.

"You know, when they got through to Mulder, they got through Rickelton, and they had to put at that point pressure on Bavuma. They had to put those catching cover areas, had to be less defensive, more attacking. Can you imagine if those first couple of balls had been chipped up? South Africa now it's three down. Australia got control of the match. So for me, that was a trick," he added.

"The drifting of the nature of the game just allowed the rotation of strike, allowed that partnership to grow and build in confidence, and it just got away from the Australian bowling lineup. Yes, it's flat conditions, but you must take 10 wickets to defend the World Test Championship. You must take the top three out of play," concluded the former Australian opener.

South African pace legend Dale Steyn also expressed surprise at Australia's tactics, stating that they should have maintained catching positions on a pitch where the ball wasn’t even reaching the slips.

"Yeah, a little bit surprised, I think. You know, you have to adapt with the flow of the game, and obviously today, we've seen the ball has been keeping really low, it hasn't really managed to make it to the slips, even from yesterday. And, you know, whenever we used to play, I would play a place like India, your short cover, short midwicket, it doesn't matter. They're as good as cordon slips in South Africa or Australia or something like that. So on days like this, when the ball is not travelling and it's not making its way to the slips, you have to have those guys in those kinds of catching positions," Steyn added to Hayden's point.

With the Proteas now need 69 runs, Australia will resort to desperate measure to make a turnaround in the match.

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