Quinton de Kock breaks silence on 2024 T20 World Cup final: Heart hurts thinking of defeat from India, de Kock’s biggest pain revealed

New Delhi. India will face South Africa in their first match of the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup 2026 in Ahmedabad on Sunday. This match will also be a rematch of the 2024 T20 World Cup final, in which India had won. Before the Super 8 match, South African opener Quinton de Kock talked about the defeat in the 2024 final and said that no player of the team ever wants to talk about that match. His team ‘just forgot’ that defeat.

South Africa was in a strong position most of the time in the final and during the run chase, only 30 runs were needed from the last 30 balls. Heinrich Klaasen was batting and dominated the Indian bowlers, in which he also scored 24 runs in one over off Axar Patel. All-rounder Hardik Pandya gave relief to India by dismissing Klaasen in the 17th over and South Africa’s team fell apart in the last three overs.

nobody wanted to talk about that

De Kock said, “To be honest, after that match we just forgot about it. Honestly, none of us wanted to talk about it. We went home and tried to handle that loss in our own way. That’s all. We never talked about it.”

When asked whether South Africa is the best team to face India or defeat them in the final, De Kock said, “No, I don’t think so. I think the nature of the World Cup is such that no team can be called a favorite here, because at any point of the match any player can change the course of the match. The thing is, this game is very delicate, especially in the T20 World Cup, because in just two-three overs one player can turn the match. So I would not say that any team is a favourite, because one or two good teams may be playing well, but this does not mean that they will win the future matches. This is all because of the uncertainty of the T20 World Cup.