Skipper Markram, Proteas stare T20 World Cup final destiny in the eye: ‘It’s a new game of cricket’ | Sport

South African captain and batter Aiden Markram said they’re thinking about the T20 World Cup final as just another game. (Chandan Khanna / AFP)

The South African men’s cricket team faces its biggest game in 32 years of International Cricket Council tournament participation when they play India in the 2024 T20 World Cup final at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown in Barbados.

The venue is a significant one in South African cricket, for it played host to their first post-isolation Test match in April 1992 when they engaged the West Indies in a poorly attended (the fans stayed away because local player Anderson Cummins wasn’t picked) but thrilling Test the West Indies won by 52 runs on the final day.

That Test is one of three matches the South Africans have lost at the home of West Indian cricket. They lost an ODI to the hosts in 2016 and a T20 to England six years before, but won the the rest of the matches they’ve played at the ground (two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s), with one drawn Test.