South Africa’s head coach, Shukri Conrad, has offered a blunt and characteristically witty assessment of his side’s nine-wicket semifinal exit from the T20 World Cup, describing the defeat as a "bloody walloping" rather than a traditional "choke." After entering the contest at Eden Gardens as the only unbeaten team in the tournament, the Proteas were dismantled by a historic 33-ball century from Finn Allen, ending their campaign in clinical and devastating fashion.
The Proteas' performance was so one-sided that Conrad reached for descriptive Afrikaans slang to convey the magnitude of the loss. "Tonight, we got a proper snotklap, which means a real hiding," Conrad told reporters.
I don’t think tonight was a choke; I thought it was a bloody walloping. It would have been a choke if we had a sniff. I don’t think anybody had a sniff.
Shukri Conrad, South Africa Coach
While the exit leaves the South African white-ball trophy cabinet empty, Conrad remained defiant about the team's progress since leaving South African shores, noting that few gave them a chance of reaching the final four.
Snotklap: Literally a "snot slap." A hiding so physical it shifts the senses.
Moered: Smashed, beaten, or utterly dominated.
"Sniff" test: Conrad’s metric for a "choke", the requirement of having been in a winning position before failing.
The root of the defeat lay in a disastrous first half where South Africa was "strangled" by New Zealand’s spin-heavy Powerplay. After being sent in to bat, they slumped to 77/5 before a late recovery from Marco Jansen pushed the total to 169.
In the second innings, the ball was just sliding off the pitch and off the face of the bat. It feels a little bit unfair... in T20 leagues, the team that dominates gets a second crack. In World Cup cricket, you don't.
Ashwell Prince, South Africa Batting Coach
Batting coach Ashwell Prince pointed to the shifting conditions as a major factor, suggesting that while 170 felt competitive at the break, the arrival of dew made the surface a "belter" for the Black Caps in the second innings.
By using off-spinner Cole McConchie to remove left-handers Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton early, they denied South Africa any momentum. Finn Allen then capitalized on a "sliding" surface to render the South African pace attack; the tournament's most feared, completely ineffective.
While South Africa prepares for "the abuse" Conrad expects back home, New Zealand advances to the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. They await the winner of the second semifinal between India and England.
Despite the heartbreak, Conrad insisted he was "proud" of the unit that broke the nation's trophy drought with the World Test Championship mace last year. However, the wait for a limited-overs World Cup continues for the Proteas, as they once again fall at the penultimate hurdle.
