South African captain Aiden Markram said, "We felt the scoreboard pressure, which reflects in how we played our shots." The India juggernaut proved too good to miss out as Virat Kohli's masterclass 76, backed by the fine death bowling display of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, did enough to defend a total of 176 against a team that consisted of explosive hitters like Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, and Tristan Stubbs in their ranks.
Reflecting on the defeat in the post-match presentation, Markram said, "Gutted for the time being, it will take some time to have a good reflection on this. Hurts quite a bit, but full credit to the bowlers and everyone else in this team." He continued, acknowledging both bowling and batting efforts: "We bowled well, there wasn't a lot to work with and restrict them to a chaseable total. We batted well, came down to the wire in a great game of cricket but not quite there for us today."
Markram attributed this defeat due to the pressure of chasing for a competitive target: "We never got comfortable and there was always scoreboard pressure." Notwithstanding the loss, he was appreciative of his team's resilience and calls them worthy finalists, saying: "Hopefully sets us up in a really good way, we pride ourselves on competing and hopefully we can put our skill to good use."
While the Indian camp was jubilant, the South Africans were in spirits that quite were the opposite—in fact, even more so after the crucial last over by Hardik Pandya did the trick and left them returning home with disappointment.
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