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The outcome of the semi-final in Kolkata on Thursday
was determined by the first 10 or so overs of each innings. Temba Bavuma felt
that South Africa lost the game because they were 24 for 4 in less than 12
overs after choosing to bat and allowed Australia to quickly get up to 74 for 2
in ten overs in a chase of merely 213. Bavuma acknowledged that South Africa
misplayed their lines “quite badly” in those few overs, but praised
Australia’s “outstanding” effort in their tight three-wicket victory
in the World Cup semi-final.
“Quite hard to put into words,” Bavuma said
on the official broadcast after the game. “They were outstanding for a
large part of the game and thoroughly deserved victory. Looking at the result,
I think the way we started with the bat and the ball was probably the turning
point. We lost it quite badly there and we always had to play catch-up to get
ourselves back into the game.”
Was it the conditions? Nerves? The quality of
Australia’s attack? Bavuma said, “The conditions, combined with the
quality of the attack. I thought [Josh] Hazlewood as well as [Mitchell] Starc
upfront were ruthless. They exploited every bit of advantage that was presented
to them with the conditions and they really put us under pressure. When you’re
4 for 24, you’re always going to struggle to get a competitive total.”
After a light drizzle, South Africa had decided to bat
at Eden Gardens in rather cloudy conditions. Australia’s quicks discovered some
bounce and swing in addition to seam movement, which allowed them to attack
early and often. However, South Africa’s white-ball coach Rob Walter stated
that they planned to score considerably more than 212 and that it was difficult
to foresee how the ground would behave in the first hour or so of the match.
“To be honest, even the commentators that I’ve
spoken to, no one could predict the pitch would play like that for the first 12
overs,” Walter said at the post-match press conference. “And had it
played as we expected it to, then we would have backed ourselves to get 270.
And once we got 270, because it was turning – you saw how much it spun in the
evening – we knew that that was going to be our in into the game. And
ultimately it was really, so we just didn’t have enough runs to work with so…
Had those first ten overs looked a little bit different – it’s easy to say at
the back end of losing – but I think the contest would have been a touch closer
than it already was.”