South Africa beat Afghanistan in a World Cup final for the first time. The highest success of the former captains of the team was the semi-finals! Hansie Cronje, Graeme Smith or AB de Villiers never made it to the semis! After 7 different World Cups and 32 long years, the Proteas crossed that barrier under the leadership of Aiden Markram. He recalled his predecessors by taking the team to the final on Thursday.
The Proteas lost to Chokers Tamka as they could not make it to the semi-finals despite being very close. This time again when South Africa reached the semi-finals, this topic came back again and again. Will they prove themselves as chokers this time? That didn’t happen. A brilliant cricket performance in the tournament saw them thrash Afghanistan and secure a ticket to the finals.
Dale Steyn is one of the empty-handed semi-finalists in previous generations. In the 2015 ODI World Cup, New Zealand got the ticket to reach the final with his sixes. Before Steyn, there have been several such moments in the semi-final loss. In the 1999 ODI World Cup semis, they lost their ticket to the final due to a misunderstanding between Alan Donald and Lance Klusener. The Proteas were eliminated based on the result of the Super Six after the match was tied. Not only Steyn-Donald, there are many South African legends like Sean Pollock, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Hansi Cronje in the list of those who returned empty-handed from the semi-finals.
Pollock was in the commentary room when the final was called, with Steyn by his side. In the post-match press conference, South African captain Markram said he was delighted to make his predecessors proud, saying, ‘Unfortunately, Steyn has not been spoken to. I think they are legends of the game, legends of South African cricket. So in my eyes, it doesn’t matter if they play the final or not. Because they inspired us to play for South Africa. It is because of them that we represent all those who have played before us. So we are happy to make them proud. Although I think, there is still a step left. But for now I’m very happy to see someone like Dale Steyn happy.’
The Protea captain sees the loss of the toss as their luck behind defeating Afghanistan. He said, ‘We were lucky to lose the toss, because if we had won the toss, we would have gone into bat. But our bowlers did the right thing at the right time.’
Ten years ago, South Africa won the Under-19 World Cup under Markram. They have not lost any service match. This time also the context is like this. After being reminded of it, Markram said, ‘I didn’t think about it (the 2014 U-19 World Cup) to be honest. A long time ago and my memory is not that good. But yeah, when you know you’ve done it at some point before, that gives you a bit of confidence.’
He added, ‘I don’t think the two are exactly the same. But reaching the final takes the same kind of pressure and we experienced that in 2014. So I can take some confidence from there. I will try to use it in the best possible way.’
The title deciding match will be held in Barbados next Saturday. They will play against the winner of the match between India and England tonight. Markram is looking forward to returning home with the trophy after reaching the final for the first time. The Proteas captain said, ‘We have had some luck in this World Cup. I have won many tough matches by small margins. I have never had the opportunity to play in the final before, so I want to take advantage of this opportunity. This victory is very special for us. This performance has come because the team has a lot of quality cricketers, who have lit up at the right time.’
#Markram #delighted #Graeme #SmithDale #Steyns #proud