Bridgetown, Barbados – And then there were two.
India and South Africa qualified for the T20 World Cup final, with each team going undefeated through the group stage, Super Eights and semi-finals.
Both teams arrived in Barbados on Thursday night ahead of Saturday’s final, such is the nature of the matches that is hectic, even chaotic, congested. South Africa waited all day at the airport for a delayed charter flight from Trinidad. India flew out after their semi-final win over England in Guyana, finally landing around midnight.
But both teams had much longer journeys and faced greater obstacles than logistics to reach this point at Kensington Oval.
India met and overpowered two foes. They banished bitter memories of last year’s defeat by Australia in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. They stunned England, the defending champions who knocked them out of the 2022 T20 World Cup in the semi-finals in Adelaide, with a semi-final upset in Georgetown.
Nine players from the 2023 one-day squad are in Barbados – and yet the Indian team looks like a completely different team. They have no discernible weaknesses, and while not all of their victories have been easy, they have never seemed to lose.
In the United States and the Caribbean, the media did not cover their every move. The crowds and journalists who turned out were often sparse compared with those who followed them last year in India. It may have been a relief to be playing away from the stifling pressure of expectation in a home World Cup.
The day before the final, there was no sign of them at Kensington Oval. No press conference, no training, no field inspection, no outside forces weighing on them.
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Their captain embodied their new state of mind. Sharma’s play has been brave and aggressive, never more so than in India’s last two matches against Australia and England. His 92 off 41 in St Lucia was an extraordinary display of fearlessness and power, and his half-century in the semi-final set the tone for India’s dominance.
Before the England match, he spoke about the change in approach that India tried but only really mastered in this tournament.
“We have tried to play with a very free mindset in the last two-three years where we have played our T20 cricket and even ODI cricket,” Sharma said in Guyana. “So not much has changed as such. We have seen throughout this tournament that the conditions have their own challenges. And we want to do that, we want to be a smart cricket team, we want to assess and play. The moment we realise it is a good pitch, we want to play the way we play.
“I’ve tried to keep it very simple for myself personally and also for the team because… these guys have played a lot of cricket, a lot of high-pressure games. You have to try to give them a clear idea of their role, which I think we’ve done pretty well. And then obviously we want to rely on them to make good decisions on the field.
“You have to have an open mind when you want to do things, but as far as the team and I, our priority was to keep things very simple and give them the freedom that you all want to play in this format.”
Although South Africa does not carry the same burden of expectations of more than a billion people, the current players have freed themselves from the chain that weighed on even the greats of the past by becoming the first men’s team to win a semi-final. -final.
Of the 2023 World Cup squad, 11 returned for this tournament, carrying painful memories of a three-wicket defeat to Australia in the semi-final. But unlike India, their albatross is intergenerational; they went where AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Allen Donald failed to go.
Their journey to the final was more rocky, mainly marked by tight ends and narrow misses, the kind of scenarios that allowed the best teams to win.
But, according to their captain, the difference is that this team won the key moments and remained calm under pressure.
“There were some close moments in the games that probably would have impacted the result and we managed to win those moments,” Aiden Markram said in his pre-match press conference. “Having done this two, three, maybe four times in the competition so far has given the team the belief that it is possible to win at any position, which , I think, is quite important for a team.
“We’ve been together for several years now as a white-ball team and the guys are finally really understanding their role within the team. I think it’s starting to help us win those little margins and those decisive moments.
“There’s a very strong will to win. I don’t think it’s desperation, but it’s an extreme hunger to win cricket matches, and we haven’t achieved ideally on the world stage what we would have liked and I think that sets the tone a little bit for the boys to finally get there.
“You’ve seen it in the close results, you probably haven’t played some of our best cricket, but that will to win drives you to do the job, no matter what. That’s probably one of the things that’s really stood out to me about this group.”
South Africa receives ‘a lot of support’ ahead of India showdown
These players all shared the pain of South Africa’s last-16 history, as players or fans. Markram said the “heartbreaking” 2015 World Cup semi-final, which New Zealand won with one ball to spare, was his worst memory. Former players from that team, and others before it, shared their congratulations and encouragement in person or remotely.
“There’s been a lot of support from the old players, which is special for us as a group,” Markram said. “They’re the guys who inspired us when we were younger and now they’re proud first of all, but also to have their support obviously means a lot to us as a team.
“The journey has finally brought us here for our first final, which is a proud and special feeling, not just for me but for everyone involved in the team. To have the opportunity to win our first trophy, you have to be in the final to have that opportunity and to at least be involved in this final tomorrow is a huge achievement for us.”
Markram was speaking at Kensington Oval, where six other South African players have arrived for an optional training session. They moved around the pitch, sometimes getting down on all fours to inspect it more closely. Names like Baartman and Coetzee and Maharaj and Hendricks, who are not yet part of the pantheon of South African greats, but that could change if they lift South Africa’s first World Cup trophy.
To do so, they will need to defeat the tournament’s in-form team.
Both India and South Africa have faced and conquered their demons, past and present, on the road to Bridgetown. But only one will walk away with the ultimate prize.
