'Snotklap' ends South Africa's unbeaten run

South Africa's worst night at the men's T20 World Cup coincided with one of coach Shukri Conrad's most unvarnished press conferences.

"I don't know if tonight was a choke; I thought it was a bloody walloping," Conrad said. "In order for you to choke, you must have had a sniff of winning the game. We didn't have a sniff. In South Africa, we'd say we got moered. Tonight, we got a proper snotklap. We chose a really crappy time to have a poor night."

• Moer/moered: Mild Afrikaans epithets meaning a beat down.
• Snotklap: Afrikaans for "snot slap"—slapped so hard the snot flies from your nose.

Conrad's use of those words was impeccably apt. South Africa, widely seen as the tournament favorites after winning all seven of their group and Super Eights matches, were thrashed by New Zealand in their semifinal at Eden Gardens.

The Match Summary:

• South Africa lost the toss, were put in to bat, and lurched to 12/2 and 77/5 before recovering to 169/8.
• New Zealand's chase was dominant: Tim Seifert and Finn Allen shared an opening stand of 117 off 55 balls.
• Allen and Rachin Ravindra then put on 56 off 22 to finish the job.
• Finn Allen drove the last ball for four to reach 100 not out off just 33 balls.
• Result: New Zealand won by nine wickets with 43 balls remaining, advancing to Sunday's final.

Post-Match Analysis:

Coach Shukri Conrad: "They strangled us up front. We lost wickets and didn't get any sort of momentum going. I'm not going to sit here and try and make excuses for a bad night. We weren't good and they were excellent."

He also braced for criticism: "Enough people are going to be jumping on the bandwagon… It's cue the abuse now. There'll be enough of it."

Batting Coach Ashwell Prince pointed to the toss and conditions:

• During South Africa's innings, the ball wasn't coming onto the bat, making it "really difficult to hit a four on the ground." To score boundaries, they had to go aerial, leading to mis-hits.
• In the second innings, "the ball was sliding off the pitch and onto the face of the bat," and once rolling on the outfield, it beat the fielders.

Prince was careful to credit New Zealand: "When someone scores a hundred in 33 balls, no matter how good the batting conditions are, you have to give credit."

Contrasting Campaign:
South Africa had beaten New Zealand by seven wickets in the group stage on February 14. Days later, they recovered from 12/2 and 20/3 to post 187/7 and beat India. On this night,他们也 found themselves at 12/2, but unlike against India—where they built runs with busy productivity and sharp running—they tried to hit their way out of trouble and failed.