 "India vs South Africa: Rohit vs Jansen, Pant vs Maharaj among player battles to watch in final")
The wait is almost over as India and South Africa are set to lock horns in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in Barbados on Saturday. Both teams are unbeaten in this tournament so far with India having registered a win lesser than South Africa (eight wins) due to the Men in Blue’s group stage match against Canada in Florida being washed out due to rain.
T20 World Cup 2024: News | Schedule | Results | Points Table
While this is India’s third final in a T20 World Cup, South Africa are into their first-ever title clash in the history of this tournament. India, victors of the inaugural edition back in 2007, are aiming to clinch their first major ICC silverware since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
The Rohit Sharma-led outfit entered the final following a 68-run win over England in the second semi-final in Guyana on Thursday. Rohit Sharma (57) led from the front with a half-century to take India to 171/7 before Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav picked three wickets each to see off the defending champions to 103 in their run-chase.
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South Africa, on the other hand, have a history of heartbreaks in the knockout stages of ICC tournaments, but this time around the Proteas thumped Afghanistan in the semi-final by nine wickets in Trinidad. South Africa’s only ICC title triumph to date is the Knockout Trophy win that came back in 1998 after they beat West Indies in the final.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThere will be quite a few interesting player battles during the India-South Africa T20 World Cup final. Player battles add a different level of excitement in order to determine the winner of the contest. Let’s now take a look at some of them:
Virat Kohli vs Kagiso Rabada
Virat Kohli has had an underwhelming campaign in this T20 World Cup so far. The former India captain has aggregated just 75 runs from seven matches with the highest score of 37 runs that came against Bangladesh in the Super 8 stage. However, he’s very well known to light up memorable occasions like the final of a major tournament.
Come the final, the 35-year-old will be up against Kagiso Rabada who has taken 12 wickets from eight matches. The Proteas pacer is effective in both the powerplay as well as the death overs in the shortest format. In fact, he has taken six of his 12 wickets in the powerplay at an economy rate of five, and considering that this is the phase when Kohli tends to play aggressive shots, this match-up will be one to watch out for.
Rohit Sharma vs Marco Jansen
In the past, Rohit Sharma has struggled against left-arm pacers in the shortest format as has been the case against the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Amir. That’s why Rohit’s possible duel against Marco Jansen could be match-defining.
Having said that, Rohit has a decent record against Jansen — the India captain has scored 113 runs against Jansen in nine outings and has only been dismissed once. It’s going to be anybody’s guess as to who will come out on top between Rohit and Jansen.
Jasprit Bumrah vs Quinton de Kock
Barring a couple of fifties against the USA and England, Quinton de Kock has not had a T20 World Cup to remember with the bat. Nevertheless, he’s still the highest run-scorer for South Africa with 204 runs from eight matches at a strike rate of 143, but his biggest challenge yet will be against the in-form Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah has picked 13 wickets from just seven matches with an excellent economy of 4.12. That means the 30-year-old speedster will do everything to contain the flow of runs and it will be interesting to see how de Kock approaches Bumrah.
Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav vs Heinrich Klaasen
Heinrich Klaasen is well-known as a batter who likes to attack spin. In T20Is overall, Klaasen has a strike-rate of 151.83 against spinners but he’s scored just 138 runs from eight matches in this T20 World Cup.
Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav starred in the semi-final against England and the situation might be the same on Saturday. How Klaasen deals with the variations and outstanding lines of both Axar and Kuldeep in the middle overs could be one of the key factors in the final.
Rishabh Pant vs Keshav Maharaj
Rishabh Pant has sort of established himself as a No 3 batter for India with Virat Kohli opening with Rohit Sharma. Pant has scored 171 runs from seven matches at a strike rate of 129 but it’s not the numbers that matter for the 26-year-old. Instead, it’s the way how Pant plays those unconventional shots and the reverse sweeps against spinners.
The reverse sweep has in fact cost Pant on three occasions this T20 World Cup and could tempted to go again for it against Keshav Maharaj, whom he is likely to face within the first 10 overs. Maharaj has taken nine wickets from seven matches in this T20 World Cup and getting the wicket of Pant could be a game-changing moment in the final.
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