Temba Bavuma accepted his team deserves the chokers’ tag associated with them after South Africa’s loss to Netherlands on Sunday that led to their unlikely exit from the T20 World Cup 2022. The Protea skipper admitted they failed to give a proper account of themselves under pressure once again and duly faced elimination from another world event.
South Africa started the day with the most straightforward of equations needed to be fulfilled to make the cut to the semis: they were required to beat the Netherlands, the only associate side part of Group 2. What followed, however, was perhaps the biggest upset of the competition. Hailed as tournament favourites by many despite the blip versus Pakistan, South Africa came 13 runs short of the Dutch’s 158/4 on a dry surface in Adelaide.
That gave Pakistan a backdoor entry into the competition before they made it through on the basis of a comprehensive win over Bangladesh later in the afternoon, with India securing the other semifinal slot from this group as the table toppers after their victory over Zimbabwe.
Before they took the flight back home, Bavuma and head coach Mark Boucher talked to the press on what would remain the most bitter pill to swallow for the men from the rainbow nation. He couldn’t brush aside the talks of Proteas choking again at the world stage. The player said, though, it is important for the experienced members of the side, including him, to not let the defeat get to the young cricketers part of the squad.
“It [the chokers’ tag] will always be there, until we find ourselves in a situation where we get to a final. But there’s elements of learning we could take from it, especially the younger guys. For someone like (Tristan) Stubbs or Marco Jansen, it’s for them not to make the same mistakes. Unfortunately, that tag, we are still going to carry that monkey on our backs,”
Bavuma was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
This was considered South Africa’s brightest opportunity to bag a major world title to their name. They had the conditions in their favour, the opposition they could dominate in them and the allround ability needed to go all the way. Yet, when it boiled down to withstanding the pressure, even if it was about playing the easiest of all the virtual quarterfinals that sides have played over the past few days, they simply crumbled.
“Everything was in our hands as a team. We had the confidence, we had the belief. We had the form behind us. When it mattered, we just couldn’t do the business,”
Bavuma said.
For Boucher, the Netherlands “outbowled” what was considered the attack of the competition on a dryish surface in Adelaide. With Kagiso Rabada going for more than 12 an over, South Africa conceded an above-par score of 158/4, before managing to post only 145/8 in response against a Dutch bowling unit that was greater than the sum of its parts, with their fielders rallying behind them exceptionally.
“We didn’t bowl like we should have bowled but we didn’t bat like I thought we should have batted. The total that was put on for us was maybe a little more than we expected but one our batting unit could have chased down. We deserved to be better as a squad but it didn’t happen,”
said Boucher.
Having arrived in Australia with high hopes, South Africa went home dismayed, knowing they messed up another wonderful opportunity to bag an ICC title under their belt.
