Meme makers target Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav for failing in India vs South Africa T20 World Cup final

India's dream start in the T20 World Cup 2024 final quickly turned into a nightmare after South Africa bounced back strongly to pick up three big wickets in the powerplay at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hit five boundaries in the first nine deliveries of India's innings but their joy was short-lived as Keshav Maharaj hit back with two wickets in three balls to set the cat amongst the pigeons.

India captain Rohit Sharma was the first to go when he tried to manufacture a boundary by walking across his stumps and then sweep it over the in-field. All he managed to do was provide a catch to square leg, where Heinrich Klaasen took a sharp catch, moving to his left.

It was the next wicket that shifted the momentum of the final completely. Sensing a big shot from Rishabh Pant, Maharaj bowled it full. Pant, as he does so often, went for the sweep shot but could not judge the pace of the delivery. His bat went early and the low full toss caught the back half of his bat and lobbed up in the air. South Africa keeper Quinton de Kock took a simple catch.

India vs South Africa Live Score, T20 World Cup final

Pant, who got off to a decent start in the tournament by scoring consistently in difficult pitches in New York, tapered off as the left-hander registered a string of low scores in the business end of the Super Eights and then the knockouts. Pant was out for 15 against Australia, 4 in the semi-final against England, and a duck in the final against South Africa.

A couple of overs later, Kagiso Rabada gave a body blow to India by dismissing their best T20I batter, Suryakumar Yadav. Surya would have hit that short-pitched delivery for a six nine out of 10 times, but Saturday was the odd one out as he could not time it perfectly and was holed out in fine leg.

Pant and Surya's failures in the important matches did not please the fans.

Memes galore as Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav targetted for failure in T20 World Cup final

After being 23/0 in 1.4 overs, India were 34/3 in 4.3 overs.

From then on, Virat Kohli stitched two crucial partnerships. First, it was a 72-run stand with Axar Patel, who played a brilliant hand himself, hitting four sixes to score 47 off 31 balls. Then, he got together with Shivam Dube (27 off 16) to put on 57 runs. Kohli finished with 76 off 59 balls as India put on 176/7.

For South Africa, Maharaj (2/23 in 3 overs) and Anrich Nortje (2/26) were the pick of the bowlers.