Delhi: South African opener Aiden Markram's confidence has increased before the third and decisive Test of the series against Australia to be held at the Newlands ground in Cape Town from October 27. Markram is confident that his team can once again make it to the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC).

In the second Test played at Gkebarha, South Africa made a spectacular comeback and defeated Australia by an innings and 31 runs.

With this victory, the three-match series is leveled at 1-1. Now the third Test between the two teams starting from Tuesday will decide the series.

Hunger to reach WTC final increased

Markram played an important role in the final for the South African team, which won the WTC title for the first time by defeating Australia at Lord's in June 2025. He scored unbeaten 136 runs in the second innings and helped the team win by five wickets.

Markram believes that after winning the title last year, the team's desire to reach the finals again has become stronger.

However, South Africa will have to perform consistently in the 2025-27 WTC cycle. During this period, the team has to play important series against teams like Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

South Africa made a great comeback in the second test

After losing the first test by 214 runs, South Africa performed strongly in the second match. Captain Temba Bavuma played a brilliant inning of 179 runs, while Marco Jansen scored 85 and Simon Harmer scored 82 runs. With the help of these innings, South Africa declared its innings by scoring 425 runs for 9 wickets in the first innings.

In response, Australia's first innings was reduced to just 99 runs. Marco Jansen took 5 wickets for 33 runs. The Australian team, which came to play follow-on, batted better in the second innings and Travis Head scored 121 runs. However, South Africa won the match thanks to 4 wickets of Kagiso Rabada and 3 wickets of Wiaan Mulder.

Eyes set on decisive test

South Africa's morale has been boosted by the big win in the second test. Now the team will try to repeat the same performance in Cape Town and win the series. At the same time, Australia will be eyeing a comeback and winning the series.

South Africa will also co-host the ODI World Cup with Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2027. In such a situation, the coming years are very important for the team. At present, Markram and his team's entire focus is on the decisive test against Australia.