(AP Photo)

South Africa captain Aiden Markram looks forward to experiencing his first World Cup final after a commanding semi-final win over Afghanistan.

“The bits that we’re realising now, it’s obviously a really nice feeling. This team’s been together for a long time now as a white ball group, and it’s nice for us to get to a final,” he said at the post-match press conference.

“We feel and believe that we can compete with the best in the world and we can win trophies. It’s nice for us to now have that opportunity.”

The South African captain credited their confidence boost from winning tight matches in earlier group and Super Eights stages.

“You do get belief from winning close games and potentially winning games that you thought you weren’t going to win.

“It does a lot for your changing room vibe. So, we’ll take a little bit of confidence from that and see if we can put it to any use in the final,” he offered.

Markram emphasized that South Africa’s focus remains firmly on the present, with no discussion of past failures in the current team environment

“We haven’t spoken about it to be honest. I think it’s a personal and individual motivation that you get to a final; to earn the opportunity to lift the trophy.

“So, if you reflect back, we couldn’t get over the line in that semifinal (in the 50-over World Cup against Australia) and you look at tonight, a few things went our way. We managed to win the game and we found ourselves in the final.”

Markram acknowledged leading South Africa to the under-19 World Cup title a decade ago but didn’t rely on that experience for the current tournament.

“It’s a really long time ago and my memory is not great, but you get a little bit of confidence and belief knowing you have done it on a certain level before. There are similar pressures that you have to deal with being in a final,” he added.