Caption: West Indies cricketer Sunil Narine displays the ICC T20 World Cup trophy
India v South Africa, Saturday June 29 (10:30am local), Kensington Oval
Something will have to give on Saturday when two undefeated records come head to head for the right to lift the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
India face South Africa in a clash of two sides undefeated thus far this tournament.
India seek to reclaim the trophy they last won in the inaugural 2007 edition, while South Africa are into the final for the first time – after seven previous World Cup semi-final defeats in all formats.
The venue
The biggest Caribbean venue in terms of permanent capacity (28,000), the Kensington Oval is located in the west of the Barbadian capital. Cricket has been hosted at the ground for over 120 years, with matches featuring international touring teams as early as 1895.
The ground received upgrades ahead of the 2007 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, and was the venue for England’s T20 World Cup 2010 win over rivals Australia.
How they got here
India have won every game they’ve been able to compete in, with the only dropped points coming from the abandoned fixture against Canada at a rain-soaked Lauderhill.
Impressive wins over Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Australia secured their spot in the knockout stages as the winners of Group 1 in the Super Eight – and they compounded their excellent form with a thumping victory over defending champions England in the semi-final.
South Africa have a perfect record at the tournament, but have been pushed close a number of times across their seven matches, with Netherlands, Bangladesh and Nepal all going close during the initial group stage, and tournament co-hosts USA doing the same at the start of the Super Eights.
They also won narrow matches against England and West Indies in the second stage – but then handed out a decisive nine-wicket win to Afghanistan in the semi-final. (Courtesy ICC Media)
The Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs
