MARKRAM'S PROTEAS HAVE "MASSIVE HUNGER" TO WIN BLOCKBUSTER T20 WORLD CUP FINAL AGAINST INDIA

Proteas T20 captain Aiden Markram believes Betway SA20 “has played a pretty big role” in preparing his team for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final against India at the Kensington Oval in Barbados today.

Markram, who is the most successful skipper in Betway SA20 history after leading the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to back-to-back titles across the first two seasons, enhanced his legacy  when he became the first Proteas Men’s captain to steer the national team over the World Cup semi-final hurdle and into the promised land of the grand showpiece.

He also still remains the only South African captain to lift an ICC World Cup trophy after leading the SA U19 team to championship success in Dubai back in 2014. MI Cape Town’s Kagiso Rabada, Durban’s Super Giants’ Jason Smith, Pretoria Capitals’ Corbin Bosch and Paarl Royals’ Andile Phehlukwayo were all part of that victorious squad.

Markram now leads a team onto the regal Kensington Oval loaded with Betway SA20 stars, including his Sunrisers Eastern Cape teammates Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen and Ottniel Baartman, who all have the experience of winning titles before a capacity Wanderers and Newlands crowds the past two seasons.

Sunrisers Eastern Cape quartet, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen and Ottniel Baartman have come to love that trophy winning feeling in Betway SA20 - can they transfer it to the Proteas?

“The SA20 has been fantastic for cricket in South Africa. I feel we've seen what the IPL has done for cricket in India from an exposure point of view for players and ideally SA20 is going to get to a similar sort of vibe or it's going to achieve the same thing for cricket in South Africa, hopefully,” said Markram.

“It has been great. I think we've seen now quite a few more South Africans are getting picked up around the world in various leagues. So, yeah, you'd like to think that SA20 is going to play a big role moving forward, but already in its two years of existence has played a pretty big role.”

The Proteas’ journey to this first-ever T20 World Cup final has been incredible with the team winning eight straight matches en route. They have, however, not all been plain sailing with Markram’s men having to dig deep into their resolve on occasion as they needed to show they possessed the character to execute under pressure.

Markram feels that having done this, and then coming out on the right side of the result, will only benefit the Proteas in what is easily the biggest game of their professional careers.

“I think there's been close moments in games that would have probably affected the result and we managed to win those moments. To have done them two, three, maybe four times throughout the competition so far has sort of given the team the belief that you can win from any position, which I think is quite important for a team to have that,” he said.

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“We've been together now for quite a few years as a squad, as a white ball squad, and guys finally really understanding their roles within the team and I think that's starting to help us win those like small margins and those knife-edge moments.

“I think there's a really strong will to win. I don't think it's on the level of desperation though but it's an extreme hunger to win games of cricket. We haven't achieved ideally on the world stage what we would have liked to and I think that gets the juices going a bit for the boys to finally achieve it and try to achieve it at least.

“I think you've seen it in the close results, probably not having played some of our best cricket in certain games, but that will to win sort of drives you to, by hook or by crook, get the job done. So that's probably one thing that's really stood out for me in this group. You win those close games and you take a lot of belief moving forward that from any position you feel like you can still win the game.”

While the Proteas may be ICC tournament final rookies, India will be playing in their third major tournament finale within the space of 12 months.

Having lost both those previous encounters to New Zealand (World Test Championship) and Australia (ODI World Cup), there’s no doubt Rohit Sharma’s team will be hoping to avoid a three-peat.

And after a relatively quiet tournament in the US and Caribbean thus far, there will be none more motivated to put in a performance in the final than Indian superstar Virat Kohli.

Markram is fully aware of the threat “King Kohli” poses, but knows his team cannot focus on just one player when the entire Indian team is blessed with match-winners with both bat and ball.

“He's (Kohli) a great player, as we all know. But they've got their whole batting units full of great players. And cricket's a game of ups and downs. You're not always going to do well, especially as a batter. So, we just do our planning, do our preparation from a meetings point of view for planning towards those batters and hopefully on the day we can get that right,” he said.

Finally, Markram stated the entire Proteas squad is simply bubbling over with excitement in the hope to create an ever-lasting legacy for South African cricket.

“We were obviously a happy bunch the other night after qualifying for the final, but straight after that game in the changing room, you still reflect and you say, guys, we've still got one more step to go," he said.

“It's not driven by coach or by captain. The whole unit sort of feels that and is driven by that. As general, sportsmen are highly competitive people and nobody would want to lose, and especially not lose in a final. So, I think there's no sense that the guys are satisfied. There's still a massive hunger for us to go out and win our first final. And hopefully in the years to come that can break the burden of what a lot of other people are saying about us as a team.”

ALSO READ: PROTEAS' ROAD TO THE FINAL

• Nortje blows Sri Lanka away in opener
• Miller, Baartman the heroes vs the Netherlands
• Maharaj comes up trumps against Bangladesh in nail-biter
• Nepal put Proteas under pressure, but Shamsi stands tall
• De Kock finds form as Proteas trump USA
• England's Buttler lauds De Kock as Proteas extend winning run
• Proteas hold nerve to eliminate hosts West Indies
• Markram hails bowlers as semifinal jinx ended vs Afghanistan

SQUADS FOR BARBADOS

South Africa squad: Aiden Markram (captain - Sunrisers Eastern Cape), Ottniel Baartman (Sunrisers Eastern Cape), Gerald Coetzee (Joburg Super Kings), Quinton de Kock (Durban's Super Giants), Bjorn Fortuin (Paarl Royals), Reeza Hendricks (Joburg Super Kings), Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape), Heinrich Klaasen (Durban's Super Giants), Keshav Maharaj (Durban's Super Giants), David Miller (Paarl Royals), Anrich Nortje (Pretoria Capitals), Kagiso Rabada (MI Cape Town), Ryan Rickelton (MI Cape Town), Tabraiz Shamsi (Paarl Royals), Tristan Stubbs (Sunrisers Eastern Cape). Travelling reserves: Nandre Burger (Joburg Super Kings), Lungi Ngidi (Paarl Royals).

India squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Richie Richardson (West Indies)

On-field Umpires: Christopher Gaffaney (New Zealand) and Richard Illingworth (England)

TV Umpire: Richard Kettleborough (England)

Fourth Umpire: Rodney Tucker (Australia)

Images: ICC/Getty