South Africa’s coach Shukri Conrad on Wednesday described his team’s nine-wicket loss to New Zealand in the T20 World Cup semifinals as a “walloping” and offered no justifications.
South Africa, the runners-up in 2024, entered the Kolkata elimination match undefeated, but they were completely destroyed when New Zealand chased down their target of 170 with 7.1 overs to spare.
New Zealand opener Finn Allen scored the fastest-ever T20 World Cup century in 33 balls to take his team to Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad, where they will play either India or England.
South Africa, who are often referred to as “chokers” for losing in the knockout stages of major international championships, failed at the grand stage once more.
“I don’t know if tonight was a choke, I thought it was a bloody walloping. If you want to be choked, you might as well have had a snook in the game. Tonight we got a proper snotklap, a South African word meaning a real hiding. I’m so proud of all these guys. I don’t think many people gave us much of a chance of even getting to a semi-final when we left the shores. But that’s no consolation for anything like that,” AFP quoted Conrad telling reporters.
After winning the toss and choosing to field first, New Zealand’s bowlers stunned South Africa, who fell to 77/5 before managing 169/8. Allen and Tim Seifert (58), attacked the bowling, scoring 117 runs for the first wicket to get the run chase off to a blazing start.
With a cry of joy at Eden Gardens, Allen scored the match-winning runs and reached his hundred with two fours, two sixes, and a four off consecutive balls.
“We chose a really crappy time to have a bad night. There’s obviously a lot to be said about playing all those games (in Ahmedabad) and not having played anything in some of the other states. But again, that’s no excuse,” said Conrad.
In the Super Eights stage, South Africa played five of their seven games in Ahmedabad, including two decisive victories over holders India and the West Indies.
Despite Marco Jansen’s undefeated 55, South Africa were forced to play catch-up in the semi-final after losing half of their team in 10.2 overs. On Sunday, India chased down 196 against the West Indies.
“They strangled us up front, lost wickets, didn’t get any sort of momentum going. Not a lot of it went right tonight but that was probably enforced because they were so good and they never gave us a sniff,” said Conrad.
