Shortly after suffering in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, South Africa captain Aiden Markram put on a brave face at the post-match presser. Having gone into the summit clash unbeaten, the Proteas looked to be cruising to their first ever World Cup title with just 30 runs needed off the last 30 balls of the chase. However, India orchestrated a heist for the ages to snuff out South Africa’s hopes in a pulsating finish. While he is understandably bitter at the loss, Markram exuded confidence at the future of South African cricket.
Having been thwarted at the semifinal stage in most of their World Cup campaigns across both white-ball formats, the 2024 T20 World Cup came as a whiff of fresh air for the Proteas as they got into an eight-match winning streak to make it to their first ever final. Unfortunately for South Africa, they ran into another unbeaten side in the final, India, who were too good for them in those high-pressure moments.
“Hopefully it’s one step closer,” said Markram. “It’s tournament cricket, it’s tough cricket, it’s not easy to win trophies and you’ve got to take your hats off to a team like India for lifting the trophy. A lot of hard work goes into it. But yeah, we’d like to think we’re one step closer and hopefully moving forward we can get that first win and it can be a snowball effect of quite a few to come.”A great group of guys that’s been together for quite a long time now. Get to our first final, like I mentioned a few days ago, it’s something we can be proud of. Still, in our eyes, not good enough. You’re not satisfied with making a final, but still, I think it’ll take a bit of time for us to reflect back on all the good things that we’ve done, but obviously for the time being, it just hurts a lot.”
Having lost the toss, South Africa started off brilliantly with the ball to reduce India to 34/3 inside the Powerplay. Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav had all perished but Virat Kohli chose the biggest stage of them all to get back into some form. The likes of Axar Patel and Shivam Dube provided ideal foil for Kohli as India got to a 175-plus score. It was probably a few more than what South Africa would have liked to concede after those early strikes but on a decent batting surface at Kensington Oval, the chase was very much on.
Quinton de Kock and Tristan Stubbs launched the perfect counterattack after early wickets, setting the platform for Heinrich Klaasen who came out with ominous intent. The South African No.5 went bonkers during his stay at the crease and his assault virtually made a mockery of the target with 30 balls left. Little did he and South Africa know that they would still fall short of the target in incredible fashion.
When asked about where things went wrong, Markram couldn’t quite put a finger on things. “It’s not a specific moment, it’s an overall game of 40 overs and if you look at a couple of moments potentially where you could have done better but all in all still proud of the performance we put together today in a final and to get close like that is something I’m just proud of.”
The surfaces for the two semifinals had come under scrutiny. While the pitch at Trinidad was described as an unfair contest between bat and ball, Guyana’s surface seemed close to a wearing final day Test match surface in the sub-continent. In such a scenario, the pitch for the final in Barbados was a fine sporting surface that allowed both batters and bowlers to make a mark. Markram downplayed any effect of the toss and instead praised the curators for producing a sparkling pitch for the final.
“I thought the wicket played really well, to be honest. I think it stayed consistent throughout the game I didn’t see it changing a lot of our batters came off after getting out saying felt like a really good wicket so Hats off to the groundsman. Yeah, for preparing it a wicket that he did. It’s a great game of cricket to have a final like that on a good wicket, something in it for the bowlers, something in it for the batters. Just a good spectacle overall.”
South Africa’s history is laced with World Cup matches where they let slip games of glorious advantages, thereby faltering at the end. The 1999 semifinal against Australia stands out as the biggest scar for them. Considering all factors, this defeat would be as painful, given how comfortable the run chase was supposed to be in the final five overs.
“It’s just gut wrenching – that’s really what it is. Each player has been on a different individual journey to get to this first final. Ultimately you become really tight as a group and you want good things to happen to this group because you know they’re great people and when you get really close like that, especially the nature of how the game went, obviously adds to the emotions and it’s one of those things but yeah, we can channel it moving forward but I think next couple of days you let it be, you let yourself feel the way you want to feel and then really start reflecting in a positive manner.”
