South Africa’s head coach Mark Boucher said, out of the semi-finals t20 world cup A lousy net run rate was a bitter pill to swallow.
South Africa emerged as a strong contender to qualify for the semi-finals as the tournament progressed, but despite winning four of their five matches, the Proteas failed to make the top four.
In their final group game, they beat Eoin Morgan & Co. by 10 runs, which was not enough to seal a top-four spot, as England and Australia, who also had eight points each, had a higher net run rate than the Proteas. was better.
“It’s not successful because you’re out of the World Cup. It’s a bitter pill to swallow,” Boucher said at the post-match conference.
“I think we played some really good cricket throughout the campaign, cricket under a lot of pressure as well after losing our first game. We worked hard in training, we had a good conversation. I think we have beaten an in-form team in white-ball cricket for a while.”
After losing the toss and asked to bat, South Africa had to restrict England to 130 to qualify for the semi-finals, but were not able to do so.
“It’s tough for the boys in the changing room. We knew what we had to do today, the equation was very difficult for us,” Boucher said.
“I just told people to try to control what we can. Unfortunately, we can’t control what the other consequences are. We acted today but it’s pretty bitter.”
Boucher lamented that South Africa could not take advantage of those opportunities in the matches against Australia and Bangladesh.
South Africa defended 118 for nine in the first match of their campaign against Australia. It was the only game they lost.
“Okay, first game. The first game was tough. We just didn’t bat well. It was tough. We lost the toss. We batted first and we weren’t 100 percent sure what a good total was because we were going there. And were the first games to be played.
“We can be focused on scoring 160 but probably need 130, 140 to be competitive. We probably could have done better there.”
He had a chance to improve his net run rate against Bangladesh. However, he took 13.3 overs to chase 85. Had he done it within eight overs, things could have been different.
“Chasing a small target against Bangladesh, people might have looked at that and said we should have been a little tough there, but that was not the intention, and we lost three wickets for one wicket which was the whole store. were going in. Unfortunately if and but now they don’t count.”
Boucher, however, was happy with the side’s good performance in the tournament, which he believes will put them in a good position.
“This team knows if we are on a journey, uphill, that we are learning along the way. You know, we are by no means a finished product,” said the 44-year-old.
“These games will put us in a very good position because as I said, every game we played was under pressure. It’s something that we probably haven’t done very well in the past, the big games, the pressure games, and we’ve done really well in this particular competition. “
Flying under the radar by quietly going about their business, South Africa had an impressive tournament. After losing to Australia, they rallied to defeat Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the West Indies and the mighty England.
Boucher feels that this young Proteas side is progressing and moving in the right direction.
“Yeah, it is a young side. We are still developing and hopefully we can move forward strongly from here, also taking this confidence forward,” he said.
“It is not something that we have just reached the World Cup and suddenly started playing good cricket. We have won a lot of matches in recent times. So, we are going in the right direction. We just need a little luck and a little luck to get on our way and hopefully we can put some in the trophy cabinet soon. “
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