Proteas Men’s captain Aiden Markram believes his team’s narrow defeat to India in their first-ever T20 World Cup final will “fire us up for future events”.
It was the first time a Proteas Men’s team had reached a World Cup final across both the One-Day International and T20I formats since 1992.
Markram’s men were within touching distance of hauling in a record total in a T20 World Cup final, but ultimately fell seven runs short at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. But having now overcome the semi-final hurdle after seven previous defeats and tasted the experience of a World Cup final, Markram feels the only way is up for his team from here on.
“To get to our first final, like I mentioned a few days ago, it’s something we can be proud of,” Markram said.
“Not just of today, the game itself, but the competition as a whole, the build-up to get here. So, in hindsight, we will still feel really good about this competition. Hopefully, it’s one step closer.
“Hopefully, it’s one step closer.
“It’s tournament cricket, it’s tough cricket, it’s not easy to win trophies and you’ve got to take your hat off to a team like India for lifting the trophy. A lot of hard work goes into it.
“But, yeah, we’d like to think we’re one step closer and hopefully moving forward we can get that first win and it can be a snowball effect of quite a few to come.”
The immediate emotions after the final showed how much it meant to the Proteas in their bid to win a first-ever World Cup trophy.
Senior batter David Miller, who was magnificently caught on the boundary in the final over, was particularly crestfallen as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
Markram admitted the defeat would stay with the team for a long while, but that would only serve as motivation for future tournaments.
“In our eyes, not good enough. You’re not satisfied with making a final, but still, I think it’ll take a bit of time for us to reflect back on all the good things that we’ve done, but obviously, for the time being, it just hurts a lot,” Markram said.
“This group’s a great bunch of people. In my opinion, they deserve really good things to go their way. I had a really good feeling about this competition before we came here and, as the competition went on, that feeling got stronger and stronger.
“So, pretty tough to deal with now, but it’s a sport at the end of the day. Someone’s going to win, someone’s going to lose.
“And like I mentioned, just for the time being, it stings a bit, but it’s good for it to sting. We’ll try to use it to fire us up for future events.”
Several members of the Proteas squad will return to South Africa later this week, while the rest of the squad, who are contracted to the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the US, will head to that tournament instead.
Proteas fans will not have to wait long for a rematch with the newly-crowned T20 world champions as India are set tour South Africa for a four-match T20I series in November.
Cape Times