SPECIAL REPORT
A narrow win over England was not enough to see South Africa through to the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
The Proteas claimed victory by only ten runs when a winning margin of 60 was needed as England confirmed theirs and Australia’s involvements in the knockout stages despite suffering their first defeat in Group 1.
For South African coach Mark Boucher the win was no consolation as they missed out on qualification through net run-rate.
He said: “It is not successful because you're knocked out of a World Cup, so it is a better pill to swallow.
“I think we played some very good cricket throughout the campaign cricket under a lot of pressure as well after having lost our first game.
“We put in a lot of hard work in training, our chats were good. I think we beat the in-form side in white-ball cricket for a while now.
“It's a tough one for the guys in the changing room. We knew what we had to do today, the equation was very difficult for us to have to get through.
“I just said to the guys just try control what we can control. Unfortunately, we can't control what other results are out there.
"We did the job today but it’s quite bitter.”
For England, their first defeat of the tournament did not stop them from topping Group 1 and confirming their place in the semi-finals next week.
However, they may be without Jason Roy who was forced off with a calf injury having made 20 off 16 balls as England looked to chase down 189.
Eoin Morgan confirmed that he will have a scan tomorrow to assess the possibility of Roy having any further involvement in the tournament.
Reflecting on the loss, Morgan said: “We're not going to be at our best every game, but we do need to find ways to win.
“I think in the field, actually, we weren't as intense as we have been previous game. Just small things that we didn't do as neatly or as cleanly as we would have liked.
“But with the ball, we probably kept them to a reasonable score, in and around par. Obviously, when your premium batsman goes down, that does hurt you, particularly given the form that he's in.
“And also, on the other hand, the other guys that haven't batted a lot in the tournament came in, struck the ball really well which is a great sign obviously for the semi-final.”
