You get a little bit of belief, knowing you have done it on a certain level before: Markram

South Africa started playing white-ball cricket in 1991, post-apartheid, and since then, they have been so close yet so far in terms of winning a World Championship. They have infamously acquired the C-tag, but it was back in 2014 that the South Africa U19 team, led by a certain Aiden Markram, won the World Cup. 

10 years later, Markram will have another opportunity to help the senior team win their first-ever World Cup in any format. Does the previous experience help Markram? Well, of course.

“If I'm very honest with you, no. It's a really long time ago, and my memory is not great, but you get a little bit of confidence and a little bit of belief knowing you have done it on a certain level before,” Markram said in the post-match press conference.

“I don't think it's the exact same here at men's cricket, but there are similar pressures that you have to deal with being in a final and we would have experienced that in 2014 so the bit of confidence, the bit of belief that we can take from that, we'll try to use to the best that we can.”

Markram further asserted that things like making it to the final and their infamous record never even crossed their minds, for they were too focused on the present.

“No, we haven't spoken about it to be honest. I think it's a personal and individual motivation that you get to a final; to earn the opportunity to hopefully lift the trophy but we all understand this game and how it works and things can go for you, things can go against you, and you take that in your stride so you reflect back to five months ago we couldn't get over the line in that semi-final and you look at tonight, a few things went our way. We managed to win the game and we found ourselves in the final.”

This World Cup has been incredibly supportive of the bowlers across the USA and West Indies. The South African pacers, led by Kagiso Rabada, have risen to the occasion quite spectacularly. Markram applauded the effort while adding that their bowling against Afghanistan in the semi-final was exceptional.

“The bowlers, not just today, but the whole competition, have been really good. Probably saved the batters on certain occasions, but conditions I would say have been in their favour. But even if you say that, they still have to get it done right. And that's exactly what they've been doing for us, game in and game out. 

“So, you have to give a lot of appreciation towards them. They've been really good for us. Tonight was an exceptional performance by the whole bowling unit and the pitch was obviously quite challenging as we saw and. Like I said, you do still have to get the ball in the right area so you give credit to your bowlers. They've used the conditions really well and managed to get us into a winning position,” the 29-year-old added.

However, most of the wickets that South Africa have played have been bowler-friendly, but the Trinidad wicket was very challenging to overcome. Afghanistan couldn't sustain the challenge, but to South Africa's delight, the Barbados surface has been a good batting wicket and is expected to remain the same for the finale. 

"T20 cricket as a whole, you want entertainment. The wickets that we've had throughout the competition have been pretty challenging. Tonight's wicket was pretty challenging once again. It's hard to tell that a wicket is not good because it can't just always be a batter's game, but I think if we reflect back on this wicket, we'll probably be pretty happy that we're not playing here again. 

"But having said that, still taking the positives we can. Wickets are tough. Wickets are the same for both teams on the night. So, finding a way to win is probably the most important thing.

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