Let’s not get bogged down in England’s apocalyptic failure at this point. There will be, I’m quite sure, further opportunities to remonstrate over an English batting collapse. After all, T.I.E. (This Is England). Today instead, as we sit in the shadow of the World Cup final, let’s talk about South Africa’s failure!
Failure may be a bit strong, SA did make it through to the final. They made it through to the final without losing a single game, not an easy achievement in any sport and as I look back at this last month of blogging, no less than 5 editions of All The Cricket have had the Proteas name or colours featured in the title……..they have been worth writing about.
Somehow though, you could always feel that things weren’t quite as rosey as the winner’s column might indicate. SA did win all their games but were pushed right to the line by Nepal and USA and their danger men such as Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen failed to fire on to many occasions. All of this made a finals victory seem a big ask for The Proteas.
On the other side of the final were India, a team with so much talent, frankly they should be winning everything. There is so much home grown talent in India that not a single player in the Indian squad took part in the IPL final in back in May……..incredible scenes.
India, like South Africa won all their games in the tournament, but unlike South Africa, they’ve never really had a wobble.
That does mean that this World Cup will be won by a team that hasn’t dropped a single game, that’s never happened before in the T20 format.
There is a twist to work into this narrative of Indian dominance however. Despite all their talent, all their resources and the fact their governing body (BCCI) practically run the world game, India haven’t won a ICC world trophy since 2013. At last year’s ODI World Cup, India’s trajectory to success looked much the same as this year. They won every game leading into the final, they won them all convincingly, India were in fact winning games by such high margins their batsmen were bowling overs on several occasions ……….seemingly just for a laugh! The final of that tournament, in the world’s biggest cricket ground The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, in front of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi himself, it was little more than a coronation……..but no one told Australia that. India, despite all their many advantages lost that final. South Africa will be hoping that history repeats itself.
Other things to bare in mind, Virat Kohli, love him or hate him, is a legend of Indian cricket hasn’t had a good tournament, he will be desperate for a strong knock, plus the knowledge that a billion people back home in the subcontinent are holding their breath………that sort of pressure can get to anyone.
After a month of top notch cricket we got to the final. India Vs South Africa. Incidentally my great friend and cricket aficionado Tara predicted as much, we might get her in here one day.
Hoping that the rain at the Kensington Oval, Barbados would hold off long enough for us to get a game of cricket in, India won the toss and opted to bat………SA don’t like chasing.
Things were not looking auspicious early for India with Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav all out cheaply. The aforementioned Virat Kohli finally had the innings his countrymen had been praying for, anchoring his team and scoring a much needed 76. With cameos from Patel and Dube India posted a, slightly above par 176 for 7. South Africa, it’s down to you
Things started all too familiarly for SA with their opening batter Reeza Hendricks being bowled by Bumrah for just 4 runs! South Africa did manage to dig in after that, with their engine room getting runs. De Kock scored a useful 39, Stubbs 31 and Klaasen a potentially match winning 52 from just 27 balls. Next to the crease was the great David Miller and around this point South Africa needed just 30 runs from 30 balls to claim a famous victory and loft the trophy a high! Let me be clear, needing a run a ball with David Miller and a set Heinrich Klaasen at the crease, The Proteas had won this game. Even by the standards of wobbly South African cricketers a loss from here would be poor form.
First Klaasen fell, he was replaced by Marco Jansen who lasted all of 4 balls, boom boom Bumrah strikes again! Miller didn’t last much longer and then it’s just a case of moppin up the tail. After needing 30 runs from 30 balls South Africa ground to a halt and finished 7 runs short of India’s total, a billion people began to breathe again.
India are our new T20 World Champions and the truth is they deserve it. They have been the best team throughout the competition and so the World Cup is going back to Delhi.
For South Africa it’s heart break again. They did manage to get a stage further than they ever have before and these World Cups soon seem to come round, the tournament in Indian and Sri Lanka in 2026 might well be their year.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja (India), Trent Boult (New Zealand) and the mighty David Wiese (Namibia) have all announced their T20i retirements after the tournament, All The Cricket wish them all luck for the future. David Warner of Australia has also retired…….we wish him less luck.
So that’s it for All The Cricket World Cup dailies for now. We will be back to weekly editions bringing you all the exciting cricket news on a Friday. The dailies will return in October for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
So there’s nothing left to say but thank you to everyone who’s been reading everyday, thank you to everyone who has just read a few and to those who haven’t read any, well you’ll never see this I guess.
Congratulations India!
All the best,
Nick
All The Cricket 
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