3 player battles to watch out for in India vs South Africa, final of 2024 T20 World Cup ft. Rohit Sharma vs Kagiso Rabada
It has all come down to India and South Africa as the two teams will face off against each other in the T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados on Saturday, June 29. Both teams have been unbeaten in the tournament so far and it will be for the first time in history that a team will win a T20 World Cup without losing a single game.
South Africa have won seven games in a row and have had several close encounters that could have gone either way. But the fact that they came out on top every single time would have given them a lot of confidence. India have won six out of their seven games with the encounter against Canada washed out.
Bot countries have been waiting for an ICC trophy for a long time. South Africa last won an ICC trophy in senior men's cricket way back in 1998 when they won the Champions Trophy. Aiden Markram had led South Africa to U19 World Cup glory and has an opportunity to end the drought for the senior men's team.
India, on the other hand, won their last ICC Trophy in 2013 when they won the Champions Trophy. This is their third ICC finals in 12 months under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, having lost the World Test Championship final and the 2023 World Cup final both to Australia.
On that note, let's take a look at the three match-ups that could prove to be pivotal in deciding who will be crowned as the T20 World Cup 2024 champion:
#3 Heinrich Klaasen vs Kuldeep Yadav
Heinrich Klaasen's ability to play big shots against spin will be crucial for South Africa when they come up against the quality of India's spinners. Klaasen's match-up against Kuldeep Yadav is particularly intriguing given how successful the South African has been against the left-arm wrist-spinner.
In 18 balls that Klaasen has faced off Kuldeep in T20 cricket, he has scored 31 runs and is yet to be dismissed. Kuldeep will need to come up with a proper plan to keep Klaasen at bay, especially if the right-hander is well-set when the Indian spinner comes on to bowl.
#2 Virat Kohli vs Anrich Nortje
Virat Kohli is having a horrific T20 World Cup with the bat so far as he has scored just 75 runs in seven innings at an appalling average of 10.71. However, skipper Rohit Sharma and the Indian team management are backing the star batter to come good in the final and it could just be the perfect ending for the Men in Blue.
South Africa will want to prevent this from happening and they have a suitable match-up for Kohli in Anrich Nortje. The speedster has bowled 33 deliveries to Kohli in T20s, conceding 35 runs and dismissing the star batter twice. It will be interesting to see how Kohli approaches his innings, particularly this match-up, given the lack of runs under his belt and the enormity of the occasion.
#1 Rohit Sharma vs Kagiso Rabada
Indian captain Rohit Sharma is having a sensational T20 World Cup with the bat and is coming into the final in red-hot form. He scored a fantastic 92 against Australia and backed it up with a resilient knock of 57 in the semi-final against England.
He has scored 248 runs in seven innings at an average of 41.33 and a strike rate of 155.97 with three half-centuries and arguably is the biggest threat for South Africa. The Proteas, however, will know just how successful Kagiso Rabada has been against Rohit and this makes it a blockbuster match-up.
Rohit Sharma has scored 90 runs in the 76 balls he has faced from Rabada in T20 cricket. However, he has also been dismissed as many as four times by the speedster.