India face South Africa in their T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8 stage opener in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The showdown will also be a rematch of the 2024 T20 World Cup final, which India won. Speaking ahead of the Super 8 match, South African opener Quinton de Kock opened up on the 2024 final defeat and revealed that his team ‘just forgot about it’.
In the final, South Africa were in a better position for the majority of the match, and in the run chase, needed only 30 runs off the final 30 balls. Heinrich Klaasen was batting and was dominating Indian bowlers, including slamming Axar Patel for 24 runs in a single over.
But all-rounder Hardik Pandya came to India’s rescue, removing Klaasen in the 17th over, and the South Africans crumbled in the final three overs.
‘None of us wanted to speak about it’: Quinton de Kock
“To be honest, after that game, we just forgot about it. In all honesty, none of us wanted to speak about it. We went home and went through our own processes about how to deal with it. That’s pretty much it. We have never really spoken about it,” he said.
When asked if South Africa are the best team to face India, or rather defeat them in the finals, De Kock said, “No, I don’t think so. I think the nature of World Cups is that it doesn’t allow favouritism at some point, because at any moment of time in a game, someone can win a game out of nowhere.”
“So that’s the thing, it’s quite a fickle game, especially T20 World Cups, because games can be changed in a matter of two to three overs by just one individual, so I wouldn’t say anyone’s really favourite because there’s some really good teams going forward now. Maybe one or two guys are playing better cricket, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to win future games. That’s just because of the fickleness of the T20 World Cups.”
