“Yeah, hugely disappointed,” Markram said at the presentation. “It’s a big, not slap in the face, but it feels like it. But because of that, ultimately, we’ll have to come out stronger and be better as a team moving forward.”
Markram “expected the wicket to play really well” at Eden Gardens and would have preferred a score of around 190 had his batters taken a bit of “old-school approach”. South Africa, however, managed 169 which was far from enough on the night as New Zealand mowed it down in under 13 overs, led by a scintillating 33-ball century from Finn Allen.
“We’ll reflect as a group,” Markram said. “I think we expected the wicket to play really well. It looked pretty good to the eye. So, potentially just adapt a bit quicker with the bat and go back to a little bit more old-school approach, set it up and try to scrap your way to 190 and maybe you’ll be in the game from there. Obviously, disappointed with the result. But very proud of this group of guys. They played some really good cricket throughout this comp. And just an unfortunate evening, really.”
South Africa didn’t have too bad a powerplay – of 48 for 2 – once they were asked to bat, but the quick fall of wickets around the halfway mark saw them slip from 55 for 2 to 77 for 5. Those three wickets, of Markram, David Miller and Dewald Brevis, all saw catches handed out: Markram and Miller were caught near the boundary off Rachin Ravindra whereas Brevis was caught at cover.
“Yeah, I think you just look at conditions, really,” Markram said. “They bowled really well upfront. The ball didn’t quite feel like it was coming on, some were just stopping in the wickets, some were hitting quite low on the bat and they made scoring really tough. And then through that, pressure builds and you lose wickets, unfortunately. So give credit to that bowling unit.”
No. 7 Marco Jansen rescued South Africa and along with Tristan Stubbs took the score to 150 with a 73-run stand and counterattacked with five sixes during his 27-ball half-century. But Markram said the way New Zealand replied with their opening stand that saw 100 runs mowed down in just 47 balls, it was “really hard to pull it back.”
“Yeah, to get to 170 was a great effort, to be fair,” Markram said. “The halfway point, we really felt like we had a sniff. But then, as it goes in T20 cricket, their powerplay got off to a flyer, and you can’t protect every boundary, unfortunately. And they got away, and then from there it was really hard to pull it back. So, you give massive credit to Finn Allen’s knock, Tim Seifert’s knock to kill the game as early as they did. And unfortunately, it was just that bad night for us tonight.”
Markram said the group will now “reflect” although he will let the team’s “emotions settle first,” before they break the game down to figure what all went wrong on one night after an impressive campaign.
“And all you do is you break down the game and try to find the areas that could have been better. And you get back on the horse and you try and improve as a group and as individuals. And hopefully that puts you in good stead for the future.”
