A big indicator of the scars South Africa’s men’s cricket teams carry is how the outpouring of emotion at making their first World Cup final came more from former cricketers who faced all those near-misses than the ones who have made it to the final. Perhaps it is because they have a final on hand in two days’ time. Perhaps it is because they are led by a fairly even-headed captain. Perhaps it is because they finally got an easy win, which can sometimes rob the moment of its enormity.
Whatever it is, their media commitments after the semi-final didn’t suggest a team relieved at having crossed a hurdle they had fallen at seven times previously. Their mental strength has been called into question. The tag “choker” has been thrown around liberally. This is only their second win in a knockout match at a World Cup. Yet they hardly displayed any emotion.
At least winning close games this time must make them feel something is different, right? “I don’t really look too much into things like that, to be honest,” Markram said. “It’s a game of cricket. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose ultimately. That’s the name of the game. You take it in your stride. You do get belief, though, from winning close games and potentially winning games that you thought you weren’t going to win. It does a lot for your changing room and the vibe in the changing room. We’ll take a little bit of confidence from that and see if we can put it to any use in the final.”
That Markram is focused more on the cricket and not on the signs is evident from how he didn’t even know he has won every World Cup match – as a boy at the Under-19 World Cup and as a man in ODIs and T20Is – as a captain.
Tabraiz Shamsi, though, gave a slightly better insight into what it might mean for some of them to make it to the final. Dale Steyn, a commentator at the ground, tweeted how emotional he was. He also met Shamsi on the sidelines. “I actually did speak to him after the game,” Shamsi said. “He gave me a massive hug and said the exact same thing that, like I said to you, this is not just for us, it’s for the people back home and the players that have played before us. They have laid the foundation for the team to progress and it’s just our duty to take it one step forward.”
Are they deliberately playing it down because they might fear getting too emotional too soon? “There’s no such thing, as you would’ve seen throughout the whole campaign from this team,” Shamsi said. “We haven’t even worried about the second fixture that was ahead of us. It was just about the next game and the next and the next. So now we’ve got to the final, we can sit down, see who we are going to be facing and then do our preparation as we have done for every single team.”
It’s emotional down here.
We’re into a final— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) June 27, 2024
That they have been winning close games is probably not down to some intangible mental strength but the depth in their squad. When asked if it felt different being in close situations this tournament than previously, Shamsi pointed to the lack of messiahs and weak links. “Everybody’s really relaxed, and in this team no one is given the responsibility to win the game for the team,” he said. “If you see maybe other teams or the Proteas teams of the past, there was a specific batter that was relied upon. There was a specific bowler that was relied upon. I personally cannot pinpoint which bowler is responsible for making us win or which batter is responsible for making us win.
“And I’m sure you guys have seen that throughout the campaign as well. Normally, in most teams, if you get one or two of the main batters out, the team panics. Whereas with us, who’s that guy? Nobody. Everybody is responsible for doing their bit to make us win, and that’s just the way we’ve rolled. And as always, some guys will have a good game, some guys will have a bad game, but as a squad we have individuals who are capable of winning games on their own. So we are perfectly happy with that. If somebody gets a duck or a bowler goes for 40 or 50 runs, it’s not the end of the world. Some other bowler covers for them and vice versa with the bat.”
Markram agrees that this team has a large variety of strengths: four fast bowlers of varying styles, one fingerspinner and one left-arm wristspinner, an opener in form, an explosive middle order. “You definitely believe so, yes,” he said when asked if it felt like they had most bases covered for whatever conditions and opposition is thrown at them. “Cricket’s a funny game where things go right for you, things don’t go right for you, and you take it in your stride. But we’re happy with the squad that we have here. It’s not just the XI playing. It’s a massive squad effort. And you pick your XI based on conditions. That’s all it’s about. So once we get to Barbados and we see what we think we’re going to come across in terms of the pitch, then we’ll try to pick our best XI. But we’re really happy as a white-ball group where we are and the options that we do have when it comes to selection.”
The biggest reason to keep emotions in check, though, is summed up by Shamsi: “It’s a huge achievement, but when we arrived for the World Cup, we didn’t come here to get to the final, we came here to win the final as did all the other teams. But for us, there’s nothing over the top.”
