Proteas knocked out of #WT20 tournament
There was double disappointment for SA cricket as both the Men’s and Women’s national teams were eliminated from the #WT20.
|||New Delhi - There was double disappointment for South African cricket as both the Men’s and Women’s national teams were eliminated from the World T20 tournament.
The Men’s side, who were “rooting for some opposition to try and do us a favour”, needed Sri Lanka to defeat England at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium to keep alive their hopes in the tournament.
Instead, Eoin Morgan’s English side edged out the defending champions by 10 runs, which eliminated both the Proteas and Sri Lanka.
England now join the West Indies as the two teams to qualify from Group 1 for the semi-finals after the Proteas lost to the Windies in Nagpur on Friday evening. New Zealand are the third semi-finalist, while Australia and hosts India are involved in a straight shout-out for the final semi-final spot on Sunday.
Proteas Men’s captain Faf du Plessis was visibly “disappointed, because I had strong hopes of winning the tournament” with his team’s early exit. Du Plessis had led the Proteas to the semi-finals two years ago in Bangladesh. He admitted, though, that he had "no excuses" because "we're not playing close to how good we are or can be, and that's frustrating."
“We didn’t produce the way we should have produced,” added Du Plessis.
The Proteas now face Sri Lanka in a dead-rubber with both teams only having their pride to play for.
Meanwhile, the Women’s team – in similar fashion to the Du Plessis’s side in Nagpur – succumbed to pace being taken off the ball in their clash against the unbeaten New Zealanders in Chennai.
Kiwi off-spinner Leigh Kasperek and medium-pacer Sophie Devine claimed a collective 6/35 to help bowl the South Africans out for just 99. None of the Proteas batters could break free from the stranglehold with only Marizanne Kapp managing some sort of resistance with 22 off 24 balls. However, when she succumbed to the leg-break bowling of Erin Bermingham it opened the door for the Kiwis to run through the remainder of the Proteas batting line-up.
South Africa’s total was always going to be challenging to defend, but they desperately required early breakthroughs to stand any chance. That was not forthcoming though as Kiwi openers Suzie Bates and Rachel Priest put together a 57-run stand for the first wicket to negate any chance the Proteas’ might have had.
Even a late mini-collapse as the Kiwis inched towards the target could not prevent the inevitable.
Independent Media