2024 T20 World Cup: 3 records that can be broken in today’s India vs South Africa final ft. Rohit Sharma
The 2024 T20 World Cup has all been about records. The fact that it's India and South Africa, the two teams without an ICC men's trophy for ages and labeled as "historical chokers" and "decadal chokers", respectively, competing for the final, rings home that point. For one of them, everything will change on Saturday.
Going opposite to IPL 2024, this tournament saw bowling averages drop and wickets soar in the group stage. The USA coming through and Scotland almost replicating that in their group were the biggest highlights.
The Super-Eight got one step better, thanks to Afghanistan's consolidation as a cricketing power and Australia's inability to chase the biggest record of all - an ICC men's treble for a lifetime. As India steamrolled sides and South Africa collected one narrow victory after another, individual records tumbled in their books.
There are a lot more to come for the final and we have listed three of the interesting ones you can keep an eye out on while following a contest for the ages:
#3 Arshdeep Singh needs three to pick up the most wickets in a single edition
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh has perhaps been the biggest positive for India in this T20 World Cup. In seven matches, he has picked up a whopping 15 wickets at an average of 13 and an economy rate of 7.50. With those, he has already broken RP Singh's record for most wickets (12 in 2008) in a men's edition for India.
Now, he's eying the big record. Afghanistan's left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi took that this year by taking 17 wickets to beat Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga's 16 in 2021.
But Farooq is now out of the tournament. If Arshdeep picks up three wickets in the final, he'll go home with a remarkable feat beside his name.
#2 Reeza Hendricks could be the quickest South African to 2000 T20I runs
It might seem like an unbelievable statistic if you have just watched the 2024 T20 World Cup. However, it's completely true. South Africa's out-of-form opener Reeza Hendricks is just 62 runs away from becoming only the third men's batter from the country to reach 2000 T20I runs after Quinton de Kock and David Miller.
If he reaches that mark against India in the final, which would be his 67th T20I innings, he'll be the fastest to do so among the three. De Kock, who has scored 2545 T20I runs, got to 2000 in his 71st innings. Miller, meanwhile, has 2375 runs and took 92 innings for the same, which is understandable due to his lower batting position.
2024 hasn't been Hendricks' year. However, his ability to play good knocks (he has 15 50s already, just one behind de Kock's 16) that's got him here.
#1 Rohit Sharma needs 72 runs to score the most runs in an edition
Similar to Arshdeep with the wickets, Indian captain Rohit Sharma can end the 2024 T20 World Cup as the highest run-scorer in one edition of the tournament. The record is currently held by Virat Kohli for his 319 runs in six innings in the 2013 edition in Bangladesh. Rohit is at 248 runs in seven innings in 2024.
The skipper started the tournament quite slowly but as the pressure mounted, he showed his best skill - self-re-invention. Against Australia and England in the kind-of-quarter-final and semi-final, he scored 92 and 57, respectively, to give India excellent starts and a platform for the middle order to comfortably build on.
With 72 runs against South Africa, he can do that again while also earning the record for most runs in a T20 World Cup edition for himself.