Image Credit- Getty
After South Africa’s shocking 38-run loss against
Netherlands, their first setback of the 2023 World Cup, Temba Bavuma advised
them to “feel the emotion of today” and reflect on their mental
state.
“You got to let the emotion kind of seep
in,” Bavuma said at the post-match presentation. “Don’t think there
is any point in trying to forget what’s happened. It is going to hurt, it
should hurt.”
“But then you come back tomorrow, you wake up and
we get back onto the journey. Our campaign is not over by any stretch of the
imagination, but you got to feel the emotion of today and come back tomorrow
with the head held up.”
With a five-game winning streak in ODIs entering the
match, South Africa appeared unusually carefree. As Netherlands rallied from
112 for 6 in the 27th over to post 245 for 8 in the rain-shortened
43-overs-a-side match, they conceded 32 additional runs (21 wides, one no-ball,
and 10 leg byes).
Netherlands defeated South Africa at an ICC event for
the second time in the past twelve months. They had previously defeated South
Africa by a margin of 13 runs to remove them from the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Bavuma claimed that South Africa’s performance was lacking not only with the
ball but also on the pitch.
“The extras that’s something you can control.
Getting 30 (32) extras, that is an extra five overs is always going to hurt
you. That is a conversation for us to have – whether it is skill or a
complacency thing – but at the end it did count for quite a thing,” he
said.
“We were clinical against Australia, but the
challenge was always to come back and replicate that performance. The fielding
wasn’t up to standard. Again if you look at the way we fielded against
Australia compared to today, definitely not the same standard.
“Those are conversations we need to have. The
guys need to answer the questions themselves where mentally they were. That’s
definitely not the standard we’d like to show from a fielding point of
view.”