The fast bowlers went partying that night. They booked a band already. They ordered champagne too. They were 122 for 2 at stumps, chasing 201 in their first Test since readmission. Ten debutants led by Kepler Wessels, who had played previously for Australia. Tired and exhausted at the fag end of a long time away from home. About to beat the mighty West Indies in a Test, right here in Barbados.
The next morning, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh unleashed West Indies’ fury on a pitch that was as unpredictable as the hurricane season. Some balls flew by the shoulder, some scooted along the ground. South Africa lost their last eight wickets for 25, beaten comfortably by 51 runs. They didn’t know what to do with the band.
In their first six months back in international cricket, this was South Africa’s second heartbreak. Who knew back then that heartbreaks would be defining South African cricket even 32 years later?
Kensington Oval has a habit of breaking hearts. Five years later, India went into day four needing just 118 with all their wickets in hand for their first win at this legendary ground. Ambrose, Ian Bishop and Franklyn Rose bowled them out for 81.
While the two finalists, the best teams of the T20 World Cup 2024, are coming back to Kensington Oval full of hope and excitement, the dominant narrative will be of heartbreak. A vast majority of cricket followers have decided these two teams – actually teams representing these two countries – are “chokers”. South Africa because they have wilted at the first sign of “knockout pressure”, failing to win nine of the 11 such matches they have played so far. This is their first final ever at a World Cup. India have been the most consistent limited-overs side since about 2014, but they have no world titles: two finals and four semi-finals in seven World Cups. This is their third final in eight.
3:46
Dravid: South Africa will move on from their history like we will from Ahmedabad
Dravid also talks about India’s achievements in the couple of years heading into the T20 World Cup final
Leave alone not appreciating the consistency and judging the teams on the basis of one match a year – credit for getting there forgotten soon after the defeat – these teams are not homogenous units. This South Africa have nothing to do with the team that was not properly aware of Duckworth-Lewis sheets more than 20 years ago. Most of them were not even born in 1992 but we do imagine what the dressing room would have felt like with champagne on ice but the opposition on fire. Rahul Dravid, India’s coach who says he has made a clean break from his life as a player anyway, is the only link with the 1997 team, but we think 81 all out when we think Barbados.
A lot of this narrative is post facto anyway. In the 1999 ODI World Cup semi-final, for example, did South Africa choke or was it Australia choking having made an improbable comeback from the dead and now dropping catch after catch and bowling right in the slot for Lance Klusener?
Australia have not got out of the group stages of four of the last five T20 World Cups, but they are somehow considered a better T20 side than both these finalists because they have a title during this period. It is cruel to judge and define teams based on this one match especially in an extremely volatile format that turns on small events.
Then again, that’s how it is. It is a fact of life the participants appreciate more than anyone else. For they must live with it. They must play it like any other game but know that it is not seen as that. They must not admit the role luck can play. Yet compulsively they must follow same routines. On the eve of the final, India’s coaching staff and captain Rohit Sharma came to check the pitch. Before they left, they made sure they got the same dressing room as they did when they won the Super Eight match here.
When South Africa came for their training, coach Rob Walter inspected the pitch and then walked slowly and deliberately to each square boundary, as if measuring which side is longer although that information can be taken easily from the groundstaff.
3:20
Markram: ‘Feel like we can win from any position’
South Africa captain talks about winning close games, togetherness in the squad and desire to lift a first World Cup
They bring out the cliché in press conferences, but they are just trying to control the uncontrollable, of which there is plenty in our sport. Even more so in this format. These are two of the best teams in the tournament because they have the best squads for these conditions, they have prepared well, they have read the conditions better than others and they have turned up with better tactics. These are expert players who go through rigorous training and fitness regimens to get here, but come the final they also add the lime and chilli on top.
Sometimes it is all about not getting too worked up and following the same processes. You might want to assiduously follow the same routines to make sure of that. Then again you are always watching out for the opposition springing a surprise. That generally happens when a team has nothing to lose; these two have plenty.
Rohit has seen extreme frustration: narrowly missed out on being part of India’s last ODI World Cup-winning squad, and part of near-misses in the knockout matches in all three formats. This could well be his last shot. For Dravid, who endured another heartbreak in the West Indies in the 2007 World Cup and never won one, this definitely is the last shot for now. His twin masterpieces on a brutish Jamaica track in 2006 won’t be remembered. His inability to win a World Cup will.
South Africa have a country to soothe after the torture of the “big match” over the last three decades. Their former players wanted some reflected healing. They don’t want this to become the new hurdle. With a provision for reserve day and the weather looking dodgy after that, the losing side will have plenty of time to brood over things before they leave.
Nobody has booked a party yacht yet, but nobody has booked their return flights either. They are all thinking about the final right now while trying not to think too much about it and exhausting themselves, if that makes sense. Or as much as it can in sport.