South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad denied they “choked” in their Twenty20 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, preferring to call their nine-wicket defeat a sound “walloping” at Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
The 2024 runners-up went into the match as the only unbeaten team in this year’s tournament, whose seven wins in a row included a seven-wicket thrashing of New Zealand in a group match.
New Zealand, however, turned the tables in spectacular fashion with Finn Allen smashing an unbeaten 33-ball hundred to secure their nine-wicket romp with more than seven overs to spare.
South Africa have never advanced beyond the semi-finals in the 50-over World Cup and Conrad anticipated that the ‘choker’ label would resurface.
“Tonight was not a choke. I thought it was a bloody walloping,” Conrad told reporters managing to retain his sense of humour.
“In order for you to choke, you must have had a sniff in the game. We didn’t have a sniff.”
“Tonight we got a proper ‘snotklap’,” he said before explaining the meaning of the Afrikaans word – “a real hiding”.
“So I think there’ll be enough people that are going to be jumping on the bandwagon. But, yeah, we also did so many special things. I’m so proud of all these guys.
“I don’t think many people gave us much of a chance of even getting into a semi-final when we left the shores given our form before that but that’s no consolation.”
Conrad felt New Zealand put themselves in the box seat when they restricted South Africa’s explosive batting lineup to a modest 169-8.
“They gave us absolutely nothing, and they really squeezed particularly well. Their spinners were exceptional in those conditions.”
“Obviously it would have been a nice toss to win, but that’s no excuse. We didn’t post anything close to what would have been competitive.”
Player-of-the-match Allen said New Zealand’s bowlers set up their win and heaped praise on his opening partner Tim Seifert, who combined with him in a decisive opening stand of 117.
“Timmy started off really strongly, and he looked to get on top of their bowlers early, which then made it easy for me to settle into my innings,” Allen said.
“For me, I just looked to play almost a support role to Tim. If it was in my area, I’d try and hit it for four or six, and if it wasn’t, just get a single and get him on strike.
“He just kept dealing in boundaries, which he’s been doing all tournament. He’s in incredible form, he’s an incredible player.”
(Reuters)
