India vs South Africa: Champion or choker? World will judge them tonight – but that’s not fair

At around midnight this weekend, the world would have passed its brutal judgement — one team will be hailed as a Champion outfit, the other dismissed as chronic chokers. This name-calling is unfair and ironic.

So far in the tournament, neither India nor South Africa have cracked under pressure. They have been undefeated, closed out tight games, even if dramatically. In their respective semi-finals, both seem to have found ways to slay past demons.

Rohit Sharma and Co in action during the 2024 T20 World Cup. (AP/PTI)

“We’ve been very calm as a team,” India skipper Rohit Sharma would say after the team’s 68-run win over England in the semis. “We do understand the occasion (of a final), but for us, it’s important to keep calm and composed.”

South Africa captain Aiden Markram too takes pride in his team holding their nerves in tense games. “Chuffed to have got it over the line. A lot of our games have been really close,” he said after their last-four stage win, where South Africa pricked the Afghanistan bubble, dismissing them for 56 runs.

It’s something that past South African squads with legendary names had failed to do. The rainbow nation’s cricket history has been an Odyssey that has stayed true to the classic tragic narrative. Primitive rain rule tasking them with the farcical target of 22 runs in 1 ball in their first World Cup after return from isolation in 1992, the epic miscalculation of Duckworth & Lewis target in 2003, and the weather-curtailed last-over loss to New Zealand in 2015 are chapters of despair and missed chances. Though none as soul-shattering as the Lance Klusener-Allan Donald mix-up on the final ball against Australia in the 1999 semi-finals. It remains the frame that best captures the near misses of world cricket’s cursed team.

Unlike many others, South Africa as a nation acknowledges its seemingly incurable ailment of freezing at the finish. The country has produced a well-received book by writer Luke Alfred, who stares the problem right in the eye with its title, ‘Art of Losing – Why the Proteas choke at the cricket World Cup’. It talks about the “macho culture” that is prevalent in South Africa sports and its “strong and silent” players.

Klusener, aka Zulu, epitomises South Africa’s tough guy image. Alfred mentions Zulu’s pet phrase. “You’ve got to stay on your lily,” the all-rounder would often say. The writer explains: “By which he meant that you had to behave like a frog on a lily; you couldn’t let anything bother you.” But the “lone frog on the lily pad” approach encourages isolation and lack of communication between team members. Experts still say that had Klusener, the ultimate finisher of white ball games, spoken to his batting partner Donald in the final overs on that fateful day, South Africa’s cricket history would have been different.

This T20 World Cup, under Markram, a new South Africa has emerged. They talk and also know how to walk the tightrope. Three of their games in this tournament have gone to last overs — Bangladesh, Nepal, the Netherlands — but they are alive and kicking in Barbados to tell their survival story. They have taken their time, come together to ponder on possibilities in a huddle and have emerged from the field sporting smiles. South Africa have been quick to adapt to every innovation the game has seen, started well at the World Cup, and are now ready to walk the last mile too.

South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada, right, is congratulated by teammates after dismissing Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran during the men’s T20 World Cup semifinal cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Trinidad and Tabago, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. AP/PTI

India, on the other hand, are traditionally a noisy team, never short of words. Be it M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli and now Rohit Sharma, on-field discussions are part of the team culture. This T20 World Cup, they have finally embraced the modern T20 approach that rates collective effort of players over individualism. India’s semi-final heist against England was the perfect storm — nobody played the anchor, nobody wasted balls, every batsman was in tune with T20 cricket’s “strike and scoot” winning mantra. Rohit scored 57 from 39 balls, the most. He was the lone half-centurion. Six of the nine batsmen to take strike, hit boundaries; three had a strike rate of over 150 and seven of over 100. South Africa also doesn’t believe in giving a longer role to one batsman in the format where 11 players need to share 20 overs.

Both teams have the firepower to go the distance. If India have an in-form opener in Rohit, South Africa have Quinton de Kock. To counter Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav, there are Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller. Hardik Pandya vs Marco Jansen is a face-off between all-rounders in fine touch. The pace clash is mouth-watering. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje vs Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh is a dream tag-team match-up. The two teams also have quality spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Keshav Maharaj.

The Oval central square has two pitches — one aids spinners, the other helps seamers. India and South Africa are armed to the teeth to take up any challenge and exploit every condition. There is a lot at stake. India can tick the box they have been missing for a while now and South Africa can correct a historic wrong. There will be a winner and loser, champion and a runner-up, but no choker.

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