London: Mitchell Starc made South Africa pay for a dropped catch with a vital fifty on Friday as Australia set the Proteas 282 to win the World Test Championship final at Lord's.

When title-holders Australia resumed on 144-8 in their second innings, already 218 runs ahead, it looked as if the match might finish well inside three days.

But tailender Starc, dropped in the gully on 14 by Marco Jansen in the last over of Thursday's play, proved a thorn in the Proteas' side, making 58 not out.

Together with fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood (17) he added 59 for the last wicket before the No. 11 was dismissed, with Australia all out for 207 in their second innings.

South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada took 4-59 to finish with nine wickets in the match.

The Proteas, dismissed for just 138 in their first innings, enjoyed an early breakthrough on Friday when Rabada had Nathan Lyon plumb lbw to leave Australia 148-9.

But Starc and Hazlewood held firm on an increasingly flat pitch.

With any early moisture in the surface long gone and play taking place beneath sunny skies, conditions for batting were now as good as at any time in the match.

Starc completed the 11th fifty of his 97-Test career when he slashed Jansen over the cordon for his fourth four in 131 balls faced.

Part-time spinner Aiden Markram eventually succeeded where the frontline bowlers had failed when Hazlewood tried to slap a dragged-down delivery over cover only for his mistimed shot to be caught at cover by Maharaj.

While Australia are serial winners of major cricket titles in all formats, the only piece of International Cricket Council silverware South Africa have to their credit is the 1998 ICC Knockout, a forerunner of the Champions Trophy.

Before play started Friday, the teams observed a minute's silence in memory of those killed when a passenger jet crashed Thursday in the Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Players and officials also wore black armbands. | AFP