T20 World Cup: Can team India end their championship blues? here's our take
By : Anudeep Sharma
Update: 2024-06-28 12:51 GMT
Hyderabad: Beating Afghanistan cheaply in the first semi-final, South Africa had reached closer to realising their World Cup dream (ODI & T20) and entered the first final. On the other hand, emotions erupted in the Indian camp after they beat England to avenge the 2022 semis loss and look to end their ICC trophy drought.
In the last 10 counters between the sides, India has a slight edge with 5 wins, while a game ended with no result, South Africa had seen success in four.
However, in the on-going T20 World Cup both the teams are still unbeaten and the team that wins the final will make history by becoming the first team to win the World Cup title unbeaten.
However, we should consider that the journey of team India playing against Pakistan, Australia, England was a lot more challenging than the journey of South Africa, which won many close battles.
Considering the players in form, Rohit Sharma is back to his dominating touch and the captain is backed by Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Pant and Dube. In Terms of bowling, Arshadeep is leading in picking the wickets, while Bumrah makes the opponents sweat for every run building pressure. Spinners led by Kuldeep are also in form and working wonders.
On the other hand, apart from De Kock no other South African batter has scored more than 150 runs in the tournament but we cannot foresee the potential in players like Klassan, Markram and Miller. As a bowling unit, the Proteas look strong with Rabada, who has an edge against India heavy weight batters. Nortje and Maharaj are an added advantage.
Taking the pitch into consideration, India had played and won against Afghanistan at the Kingston Oval, while it's a first time for South Africa in the tournament. Of the four matches played here, three are won by the team batting first. The pitch works for both batting and bowling, anything above 175 is a good target. In the game against Afghanistan India put up a 182 run target.
With that being said, in the important final, India could have an edge taking into account their overall strength and balance in the team.