Two unbeaten teams in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 – India and South Africa – will battle it out for the ultimate prize at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday. While the Proteas have won some close matches in the ongoing showpiece, India has been more dominant.
South Africa was able to finally break their semifinal jinx as they made it to their maiden World Cup final after beating Afghanistan convincingly by nine wickets, in what was a one-sided contest. The Proteas came up with an impressive bowling performance as they were able to skittle out the opposition for only 56 runs.
India, on the other hand, outplayed England as they registered a comprehensive win of 68 runs in the other semifinal. Rohit Sharma has been leading from the front and the Indian skipper has given a perfect launchpad to his team. The talisman has been in solid form but India will want Virat Kohli to come to the party in the all-important summit clash.
India’s bowling has been almost perfect and one weak link in their bowling line-up has been Ravindra Jadeja.
On the other hand, South Africa has come up with a collective effort with both bat and ball. More importantly, they have held their nerves in the crunch moments of the big matches, which they couldn’t do in the past. Aiden Markram deserves a lot of credit for getting the best out of his players and their bowling line-up has done a fantastic job.
Match Prediction: India will start this contest as slight favorites against South Africa.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs