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Bridgetown, Barbados – And then there were two of us.
Both India and South Africa reached the T20 World Cup final unbeaten through the group stage, Super Eight and semi-finals.
Both teams arrived in Barbados on Thursday night ahead of Saturday’s final. The hectic schedule, and even chaos, was clear: South Africa waited all day at the airport because their charter flight from Trinidad was delayed; India flew to Guyana after their semi-final win over England, eventually arriving around midnight.
But both teams have come a long way and faced obstacles bigger than logistics to get to this point at Kensington Oval.
India faced two formidable opponents and dominated, erasing the bitter memory of losing to Australia in last year’s World Cup final in Ahmedabad, and upsetting defending champions England, who had knocked India out of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Adelaide, in the semi-final in Georgetown.
Nine players from the 2023 one-day squad are in Barbados, but this Indian team still looks like an entirely different team. They have no glaring weaknesses and while their wins have never been easy, they have never looked like they were going to lose.
Their movements were not covered extensively by television or newspapers in the United States or the Caribbean, with crowds and traveling media sparser than those that followed them in India last year, perhaps lightening the load for them playing without the pressure of expectations at a World Cup on home soil.
The day before the final, there was no presence of them at Kensington Oval: no press conferences, no training, no inspection of the pitch and no outside forces closing in on them.
Rohit epitomizes India’s approach to the T20 World Cup
Their captain embodied their new mindset. Sharma’s batting has been courageous and aggressive, especially in the last two matches against Australia and England. His 92 off 41 in St Lucia was a display of fearless power and his 50 in the semi-final set the tone for India’s resounding victory.
Ahead of the match against England, he spoke about the change in approach that India have been trying but have only really mastered in this tournament.
“Having played T20 cricket and ODI cricket for the last two or three years, we have tried to play with a very free spirit,” Sharma said in Guyana, “so there’s not much change. We’ve seen throughout this tournament that the conditions have their own challenges and that’s what we want to do. We want to be a smart cricket team. We want to assess and play. The moment we know it’s a good pitch, we want to play with our style of play.”
“I’ve tried to keep things very simple for me personally and for the team because … the players have played a lot of cricket, they’ve played a lot of pressure matches. You have to try to make roles clear to them and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that. And then, of course, you want to expect them to make good decisions on the field.”
“You have to have an open mind when you want to do something, but as much as the team and I are concerned, our priority was to keep things very simple and give everyone the freedom they want to play in this format.”
While South Africa does not carry the same burden of the expectations of more than a billion people, their current players are free from the burden that plagued even the greats of the past, becoming the first men’s team to win a semi-final appearance.
Eleven members of the 2023 World Cup squad returned with bitter memories of their three-wicket semi-final defeat to Australia, but unlike India, their burden is intergenerational: they went where AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Allen Donald could not.
Their road to the finals was much tougher, with mostly close games and narrow losses – the kind of scenarios that have eliminated better teams.
But according to the captain, the difference is this team has won in key moments and kept their cool under pressure.
“There were some close moments in the game that probably affected the outcome, but we were able to win those moments,” Aiden Markram said in his pre-match press conference. “Having been in two, three or even four close games in previous tournaments has given the team confidence that we can win from any position, and I think that’s very important for the team.”
“We’ve played together as a white-ball team for years, but we’re finally starting to really understand our roles within the team and I think that’s starting to help us win in close and tight situations.”
“There’s a real will to win. I don’t think it’s to a level of desperation, but an extreme hunger to win cricket matches. We haven’t achieved the ideal results we would have liked on the world stage and I think that’s given the players a bit of motivation to finally achieve it.”
“You look at the results in some of the close games, we probably didn’t play our best cricket in some of the matches, but the will to win is what drives us to get the job done no matter what. I think that’s one of the things that really stood out to me about this group.”
South Africa receives ‘lots of support’ ahead of India showdown
These players have shared the pain of South Africa’s knockout history, either as players or as fans – Markram said his worst memory was the “heart-breaking” 2015 World Cup semi-final, which New Zealand won with one ball to spare – and former players from that team, and those before them, have offered their congratulations and encouragement in person or from afar.
“We’ve had a lot of support from past players, which is special as a team,” Markram said. “They’re guys that inspired us when we were younger and so not only can we be proud of them now, but to have their support means a lot as a team.”
“This journey has finally led us to our first final, which is a very proud and special feeling not only for me but for everyone involved with the team. You have to be in a final to have a chance of winning your first trophy, so to be part of that opportunity, at least tomorrow, is a great achievement for us.”
Markram was speaking at Kensington Oval, where six other South African players had arrived for a voluntary training session. They roamed the pitch, occasionally getting on their hands and knees to get a closer look. Players like Baartman, Coetzee, Maharaj and Hendricks are not yet in the pantheon of South Africa’s greatest players, but that could change if they bring home South Africa’s first World Cup trophy.
To do that, they will have to beat the teams that are in good form in the tournament.
India and South Africa have faced and overcome past and present challenges respectively on the road to Bridgetown, but only one can claim the ultimate prize.
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