South Africa led by Temba Bavuma suffered a shocking 13-run defeat by the Netherlands at the T20 World Cup on Sunday, bringing their campaign on the ongoing tournament to a close. Pakistan had the semi-final hope that South Africa stumbled against the Dutch side and this is exactly what happened. After the defeat of South Africa, Pakistan outclassed Bangladesh to secure a place in the semi-finals together with India from group 2.
Before the match between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Shoaib Akhtar made a video in which he says that South Africa has lived up to the label of chokers.
“I just woke up. Thank you South Africa. Aap bahut bad chokers hai (you are very big chokers). You gave Pakistan a big chance, big thanks to you. I didn’t think Pakistan deserved to go on going to the semi-finals after losing to Zimbabwe, but Pakistan has been given a lifeline. We need to see India again,” Akhtar said in the video.
“Thank you South Africa. You lived up to the ‘c’ word. Worked in our favour. Pakistan, hold on tight. Go on and win this,” Akhtar captioned.
Thank you South Africa. You have complied with the ‘c’ word. Worked in our favor.
Pakistan, now stay tight. Go ahead and win this. pic.twitter.com/MCl1oz6ZHC— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) Nov 6, 2022
For the inexperienced, South Africa is known for crumbling under pressure at ICC events and this is one of the biggest reasons they haven’t won an ICC title yet.
After the game that Proteas lost by 13 runs, head coach Mark Boucher spoke about what went wrong for his side.
“When we woke up. I think if you look at the way we started the game, our energy was low. Whether it’s because it’s a 9:30 game, times have been pretty tough, I don’t know, I haven’t really put my finger on it yet. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the guys and find out where they think things went wrong,” Boucher said at the post-match press conference.
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“I think our plans were there, but we didn’t use them well enough. I thought if you look at the game as a whole, I think the Netherlands outsmarted us. They threw with good plans, thrown to the long side of the field, and they were just able to put more pressure on us than we were able to put pressure on them,” he added.
South Africa could not chase 159 against the Netherlands and was 13 points short. In terms of bowling, South Africa’s plans were sidetracked, as Colin Ackermann had a special preference for Kagiso Rabada at death.
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