Aiden Markram Asserts South Africa 'Can Compete With the Best in the World and Can Win Trophies'

South Africa skipper Aiden Markram wants to relish the feeling of entering a World Cup title clash for the first time, after beating Afghanistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final by nine wickets with more than 11 overs.

“The bits that we’re realising now, it’s obviously a really nice feeling. This team’s been together for a long time now as a white ball group, and it’s nice for us to get to a final,” he said at the post-match press conference.

“We feel and believe that we can compete with the best in the world and we can win trophies. It’s nice for us to now have that opportunity.”

The SA captain said winning close games in the group and Super Eights stages of boosted their confidence.

“You do get belief 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 vibe. So, we’ll take a little bit of confidence from that and see if we can put it to any use in the final,” he offered.

In a way, South Africa have atoned for all their past failures in global events, but Markram insisted that the past was not a topic in the current dressing room.

“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 lift the trophy.

“So, if you reflect back, we couldn’t get over the line in that semifinal (in the 50-over World Cup against Australia) and you look at tonight, a few things went our way. We managed to win the game and we found ourselves in the final.”

Markram had led South Africa to the under-19 World Cup title a decade ago, but he was not really banking on that experience here.

“It’s a really long time ago and my memory is not great, but you get a little bit of confidence and belief knowing you have done it on a certain level before. There are similar pressures that you have to deal with being in a final,” he added.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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