Plus how to watch and listen, venue, match time, prize fund, reserve day provision, head-to-head record, squads and tournament results
India will be aiming to end an 11-year trophy drought in global cricket competitions when they take on South Africa in the T20 World Cup final today.
Their opponents, historically characterised as ‘chokers’ in multiple limited-overs tournaments since their readmission to the global game in 1991, are chasing their first men’s World Cup title in any limited-overs format.
The final at Bridgetown, Barbados, will feature the tournament’s two unbeaten teams which means that the winner, for the first time, will be able to boast an invincible T20 World Cup campaign.
An early wobble against Pakistan apart on a spicy pitch in New York, Rohit Sharma’s India have calmly seen off opposing teams with dominant performances – with bat and the ball – looking ever more convincing since switching to three spinners for the Super Eight stage in the Caribbean. Saturday will be their third T20 World Cup final and, should they win it, the first victory since 2007’s inaugural event despite 17 years of the IPL conquering the global game.
“We’ve been very calm as a team,” Sharma said. “We do understand the occasion [in the final] but for us, it’s important to keep calm and composed.”
Aiden Markram, who has managed to get over the penultimate hurdle that kept tripping up Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronje, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Temba Bavuma et al, says his side have nothing to fear. “This is as tough as it gets really,” he said. “One more step, it’s an exciting challenge for us. We’ve never been there before but it’s nothing to be scared of. It’s an opportunity that we’ve never had and we’ll be really excited about it. Obviously there are external pressures but we’re trying to keep it simple and that should give us a good chance.”
The final will be held at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown Barbados, the second time the most famous ground in the Caribbean will have hosted a World T20 final following England’s victory there in 2010. The pitches, once the playground of great fast bowlers such as Wes Hall, Sir Garfield Sobers, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and still the home of Kemar Roach and Jason Holder, now tend to be slow, low and sticky.
Of the two, only India have played in Barbados before in this year’s tournament, beating Afghanistan by 47 runs in the Super Eights.
The match takes place today, (Saturday, June 29) and starts at 3.30pm UK time. Should it rain, there is provision for an extra 190 minutes of play today and a reserve day on Sunday, June 30 if the match is washed out.
In the UK the T20 World Cup is being shown exclusively live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event.
Ball-by-ball radio coverage is on BBC Test Match Special on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra or via the BBC Sounds app.
In India the tournament is being streamed free on Hotstar.
Rohit Sharma (c), 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.
Aiden Markram (c), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs.
Of 25 completed matches between the two in the T20 format, India have won 14 and lost 11. Six of those matches have been at the T20 World Cup, India winning four of them but South Africa did win the most recent, a group game at Perth in 2022.
As well as the T20 World Cup, won by England in 2022, the record prize pool this year is £8.9 million of which the winners will take home £1.95 million.
The runners-up will earn about £1 million while beaten semi-finalists, England and Afghanistan have won £625,000 apiece.
(All times UK time)
Sunday, June 2
USA beat Canada by seven wickets (Dallas)
West Indies beat Papua New Guinea by five wickets (Guyana)
Monday, June 3
Namibia tied with Oman but won via a Super Over (Barbados)
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by six wickets (New York)
Tuesday, June 4
Afghanistan beat Uganda by 125 runs (Guyana)
England v Scotland, match abandoned, one point each (Barbados)
Netherlands beat Nepal by six wickets (Dallas)
Wednesday, June 5
India beat Ireland by eight wickets (New York)
Thursday, June 6
Uganda beat Papua New Guinea by three wickets (Guyana)
Australia beat Oman by 39 runs (Barbados)
USA v Pakistan – Match tied (USA win the super over) – (Dallas)
Scotland beat Namibia by five wickets (Barbados)
Friday, June 7
Canada beat Ireland by 12 runs (New York)
Saturday, June 8
Afghanistan beat New Zealand by 84 runs (Guyana)
Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka by two wickets (Dallas)
South Africa beat Netherlands by four wickets (New York)
Australia beat England by 36 runs (Barbados)
Sunday, June 9
West Indies beat Uganda by 134 runs (Guyana)
India beat Pakistan by six runs (New York)
Scotland beat Oman by seven wickets (Antigua)
Monday, June 10
South Africa beat Bangladesh by four runs (New York)
Tuesday, June 11
Pakistan beat Canada by seven wickets (New York)
Wednesday, June 12
Sri Lanka v Nepal, match abandoned without a ball bowled (Florida)
Australia beat Namibia by nine wickets (Antigua)
India beat USA by seven wickets (New York)
Thursday, June 13
West Indies beat New Zealand by 13 runs (Trinidad)
Bangladesh beat Netherlands by 25 runs (St Vincent)
England beat Oman by eight wickets (Antigua)
Friday, June 14
Afghanistan beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets (Trinidad)
USA v Ireland, match abandoned, one point each (Florida)
Saturday, June 15
South Africa beat Nepal by one run (St Vincent)
New Zealand beat Uganda by nine wickets (Trinidad)
India v Canada, match abandoned, one point each (Florida)
England beat Namibia by 41 runs (DLS) (Antigua)
Sunday, June 16
Australia beat Scotland by five wickets (St Lucia)
Pakistan beat Ireland by three wickets (Florida)
Monday, June 17
Bangladesh beat Nepal by 21 runs (St Vincent)
Sri Lanka beat Netherlands by 21 runs (St Lucia)
New Zealand beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets (Trinidad)
Tuesday, June 18
West Indies beat Afghanistan by 104 runs (St Lucia)
Wednesday, June 19
South Africa beat USA by 18 runs (Antigua)
Thursday, June 20
England beat West Indies by 8 wickets (St Lucia)
India beat Afghanistan by 47 runs (Barbados)
Friday, June 21
Australia beat Bangladesh by 28 runs (DLS method) (Antigua)
South Africa beat England by seven runs (St Lucia)
Saturday, June 22
West Indies beat USA by nine wickets (Barbados)
India beat Bangladesh by 50 runs (Antigua)
Sunday, June 23
Afghanistan beat Australia by 21 runs (St Vincent)
England beat US by 10 wickets USA (Barbados)
Monday, June 24
South Africa beat West Indies by three wickets – DLS method (Antigua)
India beat Australia by 24 runs (St Lucia)
Tuesday, June 25
Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by eight runs (St Vincent)
Thursday, June 27
South Africa beat Afghanistan by nine wickets (Trinidad)
India beat England by 68 runs (Guyana)
Saturday, June 29
Final: South Africa vs India (Barbados, 3.30pm)
2007 India
2009 Pakistan
2010 England
2012 West Indies
2014 Sri Lanka
2016 West Indies
2021 Australia
2022 England
Odds correct as of June 28
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