Few hours to go for final showdown between India and South Africa in Barbados

Barbados: The Kensington Oval of Barbados is all set to host the final showdown of the month-long cricket matches played in the USA and the Caribbean. The unbeaten teams of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, India and South Africa will be clashing against each other today to claim the trophy.

Notably, both the teams have remained unbeaten in this tournament, India has won all the games in which they competed in, with the dropped points coming from the match against Canada that was abandoned due to rain. On the other hand, South Africa has won games against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, and Nepal in the group stage and the USA and England in the Super 8 round. Also, both the teams finished on top of their respective groups and earned similar results in the Super 8 round.

In the Semi-finals, India defeated the defending champions by 68 runs and avenged its 2022 loss against England in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday. Meanwhile, South Africa registered a history by reaching the World Cup final for the first time. SA bowled out Afghanistan for just 56 runs and secured a dominating 9 wicket win in the first semi-final which took place in Trinidad’s Brain Lara Cricket Stadium.

Moreover, this is first time that both the teams will face each other in the final round of any men’s ICC tournament. They last faced each other in the 2014 T20 World Cup Semi-final which was won by India.

This World Cup final holds importance for both teams as India has not won any World Cup since 2011, and their last ICC silver wave was the Champions Trophy, which was claimed by the team in 2013. Since then, India has come close to several games, such as reaching the finals of the T20 World Cup 2014, the semi-finals in 2016, and 2022, as well as the semi-finals of the 2015 and 2019 ODI World Cups. But the team always had to face unfortunate results. Also, in the last held ODI World Cup 2023, India was the unbeaten throughout the tournament, but their loss against Australia in the finals which was held on 19th November 2023 shattered the dreams of several Indian fans and the players.

Although, the Indian Cricket team is on their way to heal the unhealed wounds of the 7-month long loss with their unwavering dedication and enthusiastic play in the 2024 World Cup finals.

On the other hand, this is the first time that South Africa has made into the finals of a men’s World Cup. South Africa has only won the inaugural Champions Trophy in 1998 and since then they have not made into the finals of any ICC tournament. They reached into the semi-finals in five ODI World Cups i.e. 1992, 1999, 2007, 2015, 2023 and two T20 World Cups i.e. 2009 and 2014.

The fans have expressed excitement on witnessing the finals between the teams who are craving for the victory of World Cup since so long. It would be very exciting to watch whose unstoppable army would claim the title for their nation, it would be either Rohit Sharma’s electrifying 11 or Aiden Markram’s thrilling crew.