History weighs heavy as South Africa die another death

It was the over that should have decided the final. It was clinical, destructive and dismissive: Heinrich Klaasen picked his moment to hit the 15th over of South Africa's chase for 24 runs, ruthlessly targeting Axar Patel. It was stunning hitting in any context, let alone on the biggest stage in T20 cricket.

Klaasen calculated that this was his chance to grasp a game that was in the balance. He lofted the first ball back over Axar's head, then had the presence of mind to leave two wides alone. Two enormous sixes followed: the first, measured at 99 metres, hit the roof of the Greenidge and Haynes Stand at midwicket; the second, measured at 103m, landed in the Garfield Sobers Pavilion.

After a violent launch over extra cover for four more and another for two, Klaasen had iced the chase: South Africa needed 30 runs off the last 30 balls with six wickets in hand. At first glance, it was the unloseable game: even if they decided to block Jasprit Bumrah's final two overs out, they would still be favourites with either Klaasen or David Miller at the crease.

By now, you know what happened next . Forty-five minutes later, South Africa's players sat disconsolately on the Kensington Oval outfield, waiting for their runners-up medals. Few words passed their lips. Those final 30 balls brought just 22 runs, four wickets and a single boundary, via Kagiso Rabada's outside edge. There is no weight heavier than the burden of history.

It is never quite as simple as a choke: one team being close to victory does not strip all agency away from the other. India's bowlers were sensational at the death, none more so than Bumrah. South Africa were rendered shotless by his skill, his final two overs costing only six runs; it left Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya just enough to defend off the other three.

But it is impossible to understand the last five overs of this final without acknowledging South Africa's legacy. This was the first time they had reached this stage of a men's World Cup in either format, a fact which owed to their repeated failures to win close knockout games - seven times exiting at the semi-final stage . How could it not have weighed on their players' minds?

This team thought it was different, finally overcoming the hurdle of a semi-final and winning countless close games along the way. One problem lingered: in choosing to play five specialist bowlers, South Africa were always vulnerable once they lost a fifth wicket. Against West Indies last week, they scrambled home regardless; in the final, their lack of batting depth proved costly.

When Klaasen and Miller played out the 16th over, Bumrah's third, South Africa needed 26 off the final four: it was a situation loaded in their favour. Time moves quickly in T20 finals and India realised they needed to win it back somehow. It was the mischievous Rishabh Pant who discovered a way to do so: he went down and called on India's physio for treatment.

This allowed Rohit Sharma the chance to rally his players. "The message was very loud and clear to everyone that until the last ball of the game is bowled, the game is not over," he said. "My job as a captain is to make everyone believe that… Whether we were ahead in the game or behind, we wanted to keep fighting because moments like this will never come again."

It was only a short break, lasting barely three minutes, between the end of the 16th and the start of the 17th over. But it was long enough for the rhythm of the game to change: when Hardik sprayed the first ball of his over full and wide outside off, Klaasen could not quite reach it, and edged a catch through to Pant.

This was the moment that the game changed for good, bringing Marco Jansen in at No. 7. It is a trade-off that South Africa have long accepted: rather than relying on part-timers in their top six, they have picked five specialist bowlers in their T20 team and backed their batters to get the job done more often than not.

Jansen is not an overpromoted tailender but has been batting one spot too high. Suddenly, everything was on Miller; after he and Jansen exchanged four singles off Hardik's over, the equation was 22 off 18. He seemed caught in two minds: should he take the responsibility of seeing off Bumrah himself, or get down the other end?

The result was the worst of both worlds: two dots, a single which exposed Jansen, an unplayable ball which moved in late to hit leg stump, a firm block by Keshav Maharaj and then a single which kept Miller off strike for the start of the 19th. "Things happened very quickly," Aiden Markram reflected. "They bowled really well at the back end."

By the time Miller got back on strike after Maharaj blocked, missed and finally connected at the start of the 19th, the equation was 19 off nine balls and India were favourites. He hauled Arshdeep away for two and inside-edged a yorker into the leg side to give Maharaj a free hit, but Arshdeep nailed his yorker to leave 16 required off the last.

"A run a ball can go to 10 an over in the space of one over," Markram said. "Your gameplan as a batter changes. You're potentially thinking of keeping the ball on the ground, running hard until the job's done. And then the bowler bowls a good over, and next thing you'd be searching for boundaries and everything changes quickly like that."

By the start of the last over, the plan was simple: swing, and swing hard. Finally, Miller got the ball he was after, a wide full toss from Hardik which he swung down the ground. It hung in the air, swirling towards the press box in the cross-breeze, as Suryakumar Yadav charged after it. He caught it, flicked it back up to himself as he ran over the boundary, and caught it again.

Markram "couldn't watch" as the TV umpire checked to see if he had stepped on the rope. "They were obviously pretty convinced that it was out, and that's why it was a quick replay," he said. Rabada edged his first ball for four but the game was up: South Africa only managed one more run off the bat, falling seven short of India's total.

"It's not the first game of cricket that's been lost with a team needing 30 off 30," Markram said. "It's more that India are allowed to bowl well, they're allowed to field well, they're allowed to go from that position to a position of strength. It happens often in this game." He described the defeat as "gut-wrenching", saying: "It stings a bit - but it's good for it to sting."

The manner of this defeat will take some getting over. "When you get really close like that, especially the nature of how the game went, it obviously adds to the emotions," Markram said.

Ahead of the medal presentation, Miller spent 10 minutes by himself in the middle on his haunches; several players were in tears after this brush with immortality.

For some, this was their final chance to write a new chapter in South African cricket's World Cup story: Quinton de Kock's reaction after his dismissal suggested that this was his final international appearance. Others will be wearing the same scars again in two years' time, hoping that the ending will finally be different to this one.