T20 World Cup 2026 – Conrad – ‘Tonight wasn’t a choke, it was a bloody walloping’

Afterwards, they became the tournament’s only undefeated team after a seven-game winning streak. Now they are out of the running for trophies. This means the World Cup cabinet remains empty, the reputation of bottling up under pressure remains.

Never one to mince words, Conrad had his nose bruised, so to speak, and wasn’t shy about how harsh it felt. “I don’t know if it was a suffocation tonight. I thought it was a bloody thump. I think you had to have a sniff at the game to suffocate,” Conrad said in Kolkata. “We didn’t smell it. In South Africa Mored “Snotklap” is also a South African word that means to really hide.”

Although there were no tears and no one had to be lifted from the floor, South Africa still looked shocked by how completely outclassed they were, as had been the case on previous occasions, particularly the 2015 World Cup semi-final where South Africa lost to New Zealand.

After being put in to bat on a pitch and conditions suitable for a chasing team, South Africa never got into the match. They lost their top three left-handers Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickleton to off-spinner Cole McConchie and were at 77 for 5 shortly after the halfway stage. There are questions about the types of shots they chose to play and uncertainty about how they approached the innings, but Conrad also gave props to the opposition, coached by his predecessor Rob Walter, for a disciplined effort.

“They strangled us up front, lost wickets and couldn’t get any momentum going. A lot of things didn’t go right tonight, but they were probably forced into it because they were so good and didn’t give us a sniff. I’m not going to sit here and try to make excuses for a bad night. We weren’t good and they were great.”

He also used his praise for New Zealand to play down talk of them becoming too big for South Africa and their knockout cricket. “The quality of the bowling and the wickets tonight made it particularly difficult for us and whether you would suggest (a lack of composure) because it was a semi-final, I think that was why there was no composure. I don’t think that was the case,” he said. “New Zealand were really, really good tonight. They gave us nothing and squeezed particularly well. Their spinners were exceptional in those conditions.”

“Our guys think 170 can be competitive, and if the hitting conditions stay the same, that means it can be competitive,” Prince said. “Conditions were improving. The ball was slipping and we probably weren’t at our best today either. In the second innings the ball went off the field and off the face of the bat. When it rolled in the outfield we beat sweepers everywhere. Whereas in the first innings it was almost impossible to do that.”

Like many South Africans, Prince felt empty, especially considering South Africa’s unbeaten run through to the semi-finals.

“Obviously we’ve played a lot of good cricket. When you look at a lot of T20 leagues around the world, I’m not sure it’s fair to say it’s unfair that a team that dominates and plays so well gets a second crack,” Prince said. “Obviously in World Cup cricket you don’t get a second crack because it’s different from the playoffs and everything else. It’s straight knockout cricket and people might make the same argument that we’re not very good when it comes to knockout cricket. You win too many games in a row and there’s probably always a match somewhere that you’re not going to have a good day. And unfortunately today was that day.”

South Africa broke their major tournament trophy drought when they won the World Test Championship final last June, but also under Conrad, they are yet to win a white-ball World Cup. The number of times they have slipped up in crunch moments, including most recently in the 2024 T20 World Cup final and the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final in Kolkata, means they have earned themselves the unwanted label of chokers. Conrad believes this is unfair and expects this to continue.

“There are plenty of people who would jump on the bandwagon, but we’ve done so many special things. I’m so proud of these guys,” he said. “Considering what we did before, a lot of people think we didn’t even give ourselves much of a chance of getting to the semi-finals when we left the coast. But that’s no consolation or anything. I think it’s a sign of abuse now and enough will be enough.”