South Africa received a hammering from New Zealand in their T20 World Cup semifinal. It wasn’t what they expected, given that they beat India in the Super 8 stage and were one of the favourites. Reacting after the win, South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad was brutally honest, calling it a ‘bloody walloping.’
“I don’t know if tonight was a choke. I thought it was a bloody walloping. I think in order for you to choke, you must have had a sniff in the game,” he said.
“We didn’t have a sniff. In South Africa, we say we gotmoeredsnotklap,also a South African word meaning a real hiding.”
In Afrikaans, a snotklap is a facial expression that makes you look like you’ve been slapped in the face.
South Africa were sent to bat first, but never really found their momentum. They lost Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton to offspinner Cole McConchie early, and stuttered to 77/5.
“They strangled us up front, we lost wickets and we didn’t get any sort of momentum going,” Conrad continued.
“A hell of a lot didn’t go right tonight, but that was probably enforced because they were so good and they never gave us a sniff. I’m not going to sit here and try and make excuses for a bad night. We weren’t good and they were excellent.”
Conrad also praised New Zealand and pointed out that the wicket made it tougher for the South Africans. “The calibre of bowling tonight coupled with the wicket made it particularly tough for us and whether you’re alluding to it (a lack of calmness) because it’s the semi-final, that’s why there wasn’t the calmness, I don’t think it was that,” he said.
“New Zealand really were really, really good tonight. They gave us absolutely nothing and they really squeezed particularly well. Their spinners were exceptional in those conditions,” he added.
