“They were better than us” – Shukri Conrad after Proteas capitulation

South Africa were soundly beaten by 9 wickets in the first semi-final in Kolkata, and looked second best from the first ball right up until the end against a team they had beaten in the group stages of the competition. 

Conrad hinted that they lost the match from the toss, but refused to make any excuses for their poor performance on the night.

"I just don't think we were good enough on the night. Obviously, it would have been a nice toss to win, but that's no excuse because we didn't post anything close to what would've been competitive. We recovered nicely with Stubbs and Marco Jansen.

"I thought New Zealand were excellent. They exploited conditions really well with their spinners up front and we never got out of the blocks."

READ: Pakistan drop Babar Azam and Saim Ayub for ODI series against Bangladesh

Before last night the Proteas had won all seven of their previous matches at the World Cup, and were largely expected to go through to the final to face either India or England. 

They did play on an unfamiliar Eden Gardens wicket, having played most of their games in Ahmedabad. Conrad was also reluctant to give that as the reason for their defeat.

The Proteas have a long history of semi-final heartbreak at major ICC tournaments, and while the coach has braced himself for public backlash about the old demons, he dismissed talk that the occasion might have been overwhelming for his players.

"I thought the wicket was a little bit 'stoppy' to start off with, and maybe they could've given themselves a bit more of a chance, but I mean its nothing deliveries that got wickets.

"Such is the nature of T20 cricket, you have a bad couple of overs and then you're struggling to pull it back, but it's definitely got nothing to do with nerves - it just so happens to be a semifinal again."

Having lost early wickets with the top order falling like dominoes, Marco Jansen and Tristan Stubbs tried their best to put up a competitive score and helped them to 169 after crawling to the end of the 20 overs. 

Conrad believes they could have still defended that total, but didn’t do enough with the ball to pose any threat.