Adelaide, Nov 6: A distraught South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma admitted that bowing out of the T20 World Cup after a shock 13-run loss to the Netherlands in their final Group 2 match at the Adelaide Oval will be a hard one to swallow for his team.
The Proteas entered their final Super 12 match against the Netherlands with five points to their name in four matches. All they needed was a win against the Dutch to seal qualification for the semifinals.
“Very disappointing. We really played well before this game. We knew it was a must-win game and again we faltered when it mattered. Hard one to swallow for the guys. 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,” said Bavuma in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“You can pick out a lot of things when you lose that way. Firstly myself with the toss, winning the toss and bowling first. Wasn’t ideal to let them off to a start and let them score 158.
“With the bat we just got stuck similar to the Pakistan game. We lost wickets at crucial times. The wicket maybe got a bit hard, but they used the dimensions of the ground a lot better than we did. From all of us, just wasn’t good enough.” (IANS)
