“Faltered When It Mattered” – South Africa Skipper Temba Bavuma Laments Loss To Netherlands

South Africa lost to the Netherlands by 13 runs in their last Super 12 game in Adelaide on Sunday to bow out of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. It was a must-win game for the Proteas to advance through to the semis but they ended up losing the contest. South Africa’s loss meant that India qualified for the semis even before playing their last game against Zimbabwe.

Netherlands on the back of Colin Ackermann’s unbeaten 41 reached 158/4 in their 20 overs. The Dutch openers Stephan Myburgh (37) and Max ODowd (29) gave the team a good start by adding 58 for the first wicket. The middle order stepped up and built on a good start to take them to a competitive total.

(Photo by Steve Bell – ICC/ICC via Getty Images)

South Africa, in reply, lost wickets at regular intervals. The in-form Quinton de Kock (13) and Rilee Rossouw (25) scored brief runs. Heinrich Klaasen (21), David Miller (17), and Aiden Markram (17) all failed to keep going after getting started. For the Dutch, Brandon Glover took three wickets and Fred Klaassen and Bas de Leede took two each.

Netherlands vs South Africa (PC Getty Images)

Temba Bavuma was a disappointed skipper after his side succumbed to the Dutch. He said that the team faltered when it mattered after playing very well up to this point.

Hard One To Swallow For South Africa: Temba Bavuma

Temba Bavuma (Photo: Twitter)

“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. We had the confidence and the belief to get to the knockouts. 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” said Bavuma.

He further said that his side did not start with the bat as well as losing wickets at regular intervals.

“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” Bavuma further added.

South Africa after a good start to the tournament was the only unbeaten team before losing to Pakistan in their previous game. As it turned out, the side lost two back-to-back games to bow out of the tournament to the surprise of many.

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