“It was a very disappointing evening,” Graeme Smith, after quarter final loss to New Zealand
South African Captain, Graeme Smith has termed the loss against New Zealand as ‘disappointing’. The Kiwis beat the Proteas by 49-runs in the quarter-final match of the ICC World Cup on Friday.
It was a shocking defeat as South Africa was being tipped as one of the favourites for the World Cup title.
The South African side has yet to succeed knock-out stage of the mega tournament since returning to the international fold in 1992. They lost the semi-finals in 1992 against England after rain rules altered their victory target from 22 off 13 balls to 21 off 1. In 1996, they lost the quarter-final match against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in the group stage.
And yet again, the “Ghost of Choking” returned to haunt the Proteas as they gave away a match they were poised to win easily at one stage. Smith was at a loss for words following the shocking defeat
“It was a very disappointing evening. I thought we bowled pretty well and at 100 at 2, we were sitting well, and then we lost too many wickets,” he said.
New Zealand made a total of 222 in their innings and gave every reason to the Proteas to have one foot in the semi finals of the competition. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 were 108-2 at one stage and were doing well in their chase but a collapse saw them lose eight wickets for just 64 runs .
It was a horrible scene for the Proteas dressing room as they saw the horrors of the past return to haunt them. The captain, along with the team, are bracing for a backlash on their return home.
“When the team goes home there's going to be daggers and swords thrown and whatever, there's a group of 25 people here that have just got to take it on the chin,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Daniel Vettori praised the spirit of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 side and said “Every single bowler stepped up today, and probably it was the fielding that got us through”.
The New Zealand players looks energized during the match. There was a lot of hunger within the Kiwi bowlers and most of them looked desperate to take important wickets in different phases of the match. On the day, they were just simply the better side.
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