Rob Walter on South Africa's 50-run Champions Trophy semi-final defeat to New Zealand
05/03/2025
ICC25
05/03/2025
ICC25
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00:00What is it that you think is hurting South Africa, because of another ICC event, another
00:06knockout stage, bowing out of the knockout, what do you think was a factor that went against
00:13you guys today?
00:14Was it the last 10 overs, the amount of runs New Zealand scored, or was it worth it?
00:21I don't think it was any one particular thing that resulted in the loss, probably a couple.
00:29We could have handled the last 10 overs a little bit better, they got away from us a
00:33little bit.
00:34There was a period in the middle of the innings where Kane and Ratchan started to up their
00:41rates a bit, and we missed a few opportunities there where we could have slowed things down.
00:47Then obviously the partnership that got broken when we were batting, we were just starting
00:52to get going, and that partnership got broken and really slowed us down in the middle.
00:58And obviously we saw Dave play unbelievably well in the end to get 100, and then you
01:02lose by 50 and you're just one partnership away from doing something special.
01:09Rob, Keshav's usually really good in the middle overs at reining and opposition side in, but
01:15Ratchan and Kane really seemed to target him through that middle phase.
01:20Do you think potentially that is a point, a bit of a sliding doors moment, because obviously
01:25Mitch Santner in the second innings was quite good through that middle phase?
01:29Yeah, I mean obviously I think they played particularly well against Keshav.
01:35I think the ball did spin a little bit more in the second innings, which would have contributed
01:40to that.
01:41But as I said, I thought they played him very well.
01:44Kesh is a world-class bowler, we know that.
01:47So to put him under pressure and turn the tide a little bit there, changed the flow
01:52of the game.
01:53So we have to commend the two world-class batters batting together, and they played
01:57particularly well.
01:59Would you have batted first as well, if you want to talk?
02:02Yeah, we would have batted first.
02:05Well, tough luck, another semi-final, another defeat.
02:09You guys fought well.
02:11I wanted to ask you that after losing the toss, don't you think that you guys didn't
02:17have plan B, because the way Rachin and Kane Williamson were playing, they were so smooth,
02:24no hazzles, the ball was coming nicely over the bat, and it looked like that you didn't
02:31have a plan B or plan C?
02:32No, I don't think that's entirely accurate.
02:36We certainly tried to change up, we tried to change the pace.
02:40I think the ball wasn't really gripping at that stage in the early phases, so the ball
02:45kept sliding on.
02:46I mean, it's just plain to see that it was a pretty good batting wicket.
02:50I don't think you can score 360 if it's not a good batting wicket.
02:56And yeah, so no, through no lack of effort, I don't think.
02:58I mean, we'd spoken about our options, if it was a good wicket, which we knew it would
03:02be, and whilst, yes, we could bemoan our execution a little bit, certainly you'll never question
03:10the effort of the guys, and we sort of threw whatever we could at them, but unfortunately
03:15we couldn't break that partnership, which really set them up to push towards the end.
03:22Do you think Baboumas and Rassi's comparatively slow innings cost South Africa the match?
03:27No, if you look at the comparative scores along the way for the first, we were only
03:33I think four runs behind at the 20-over mark, and the same at 30, so I don't think their
03:41partnership cost us.
03:43We see the tempo of the game at these grounds tends to be like that, it's a good stable
03:48partnership at the start, the run rate sort of increases gradually, and then there's a
03:53burst at the end.
03:54So I mean, we just lost a few key wickets in the middle, if we managed to maintain a
03:58strong partnership there, I think it would have been a pretty tight finish.
04:01So yeah, comparatively if you look at the first 20-overs, there was nothing that separated
04:06the two teams.
04:08If you compare the spin bowling attacks of both teams, so New Zealand spin bowling was
04:14really good, but Africa couldn't ball spin good too much.
04:21So is it only the toss factor, the second bowling was supposed to be good in spin, you
04:30feel that New Zealand's spin attack was good rather than African's?
04:34I mean, I think you have to acknowledge the black cap spinners have bowled well for the
04:40whole competition thus far, you know, Michael Bracewell sort of slides under the radar,
04:45but I think it was just two games ago that he bowled 10 overs for 24, took four wickets,
04:50so and then Mitch Sadner is a quality operator, so I mean, the two of them working together,
04:57mind you, their run rates are still up there, the ball did spin a bit more in the second
05:03innings, no doubt about that, and so, you know, a bit of conditions, but also hats off
05:08to their quality as well.
05:10We're just going to take one from here, and then we've just got two from Sint Kaasie,
05:14then the junior team and two from Rangers to bring up.
05:17Coach, hard luck today, but what are the positives which you are going to take back home, and
05:25how's the hospitality throughout this tournament and the arrangement, especially in Pakistan?
05:31We've had a wonderful time in Pakistan, I think it's been a great tournament, great
05:36to spend time here, the hospitality has been amazing and we've been treated exceptionally
05:43well, so I certainly leave Pakistan with fond memories of this tournament.
05:50I think there's been positives along the way, you know, we've seen different guys step up,
05:55Champions Trophy is such a short tournament to think about, you know, we actually only
05:59played two games to get to the semis, it feels like we've been here a while and we've only
06:04played two matches, you know, so I think as a team we played really well today, it wasn't
06:09our best day out there, we acknowledge that, and we're up front with that, but you know,
06:16we still saw some contributions from an old wise head who's just come in to score 100,
06:23which is awesome to see, Rasif Anderson again was outstanding, three consecutive 50s in
06:30the competition, and I thought our bowlers toiled, it's not easy to bowl in those conditions
06:34in the day, and I thought they leveled best to try and restrict the guys to a total that
06:41we could chase down, so yeah, we've done well, the two games that we won, we won convincingly,
06:48and we did well with bat and ball and fielded exceptionally well, our conversion rate was
06:51second in the competition, so yeah, a lot to smile about, but certainly very disappointing
06:56to lose tonight.
06:57Thanks Rob, a couple of questions from back home, what do you think the team has done
07:07right in this tournament, so far in terms of building up towards 2027, and what do you
07:13think those lessons are going forward?
07:16Excuse me, I mean I think I've just answered it, you know, in the wins we managed to put
07:23some significant partnerships together, we had guys contributing significantly with the
07:28bat, from a bowling point of view I think our biggest development was our accuracy,
07:34we were able to be very accurate as a seam unit, and that's something that we've been
07:39working really hard on, every game we play is a learning opportunity, we just keep trying
07:45to take the little lessons, today is a hard lesson, you feel it a little bit more, because
07:52it's the end of a campaign, but we certainly continue to keep learning from things, little
07:57bits here and there, that we can do better, we're still evolving as a team there's no
08:02doubt in my mind, two and a half years to 2027, and that's the eyes on the prize.
08:09And just reflecting on the tournament as a whole, and the group that you were in, how
08:13do you feel you guys fared against all of your opponents?
08:17Yeah, people I think refer to our pool as the pool of death, because of the strength
08:24of the competition in it, we saw Afghanistan beat England and play exceptionally well,
08:29Australia obviously the other side to get through, we really missed not playing them
08:35in our second game, I think that would have been an excellent competitive match there,
08:40but we did what we had to do in the two games in the pool rounds, and won convincingly well,
08:46and played some seriously good cricket, so it was just a bad day to have a bad day today.
08:51Thanks very much Will.