ICC Men’s T20 World Cup: South Africa captain Aiden Markram ahead of final – ‘massive hunger to win’

South Africa captain Aiden Markram said his team are driven by an “extreme hunger” to win as they search for their first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup title when they take on India on Saturday.

Until Wednesday’s victory over Afghanistan, the Proteas had suffered seven defeats in World Cup semi-finals, in both T20 and 50-over formats, and will be playing in the title game for the first time.

Markram said that far from being consumed by past shortcomings, his team has shown throughout the tournament, where they have been unbeaten, a powerful desire.

“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,” Markram said at a press conference on Friday.

His team may not be conditioned by the defeats of the past but, Markram said, they are certainly motivated by them.

“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,” he said.

As well as some convincing wins, South Africa have edged victories in close encounters with Bangladesh, Nepal and England and those performances, says Markram showed...

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