Kolkata: South Africa has a long record of losing in knock out games. South Africa did not miss this record even in the T20 World Cup 2026. South Africa suffered a crushing defeat by 9 wickets in the semi-final match played against New Zealand in Kolkata on Wednesday. South African coach Shukri Conrad has called this defeat a ‘bloody defeat’.
Shukri Conrad said after the match, “I don’t know if there was a choke tonight. I thought it was a bloody beating. To get choked, you have to have even the slightest grip in the game. We didn’t get any grip. It was like being slapped in the face.”
Conrad said, “Not a lot went right tonight, but maybe that’s because they were too good and they never gave us a chance. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses for a bad night. We weren’t good and they were too good. They stopped us from going forward, we lost wickets and we didn’t get any momentum.”
“The quality of the bowling tonight and the wicket made the match difficult for us,” the South African coach said. Praising New Zealand, Conrad said, “New Zealand played really, really well tonight. They didn’t give us any chances at all and put on really good pressure. Their spinners were very good.”
South Africa, which remained unbeaten in the T20 World Cup 2026 and had defeated New Zealand in the group stage, had to face a one-sided defeat against New Zealand in the semi-finals. After losing the toss, South Africa had scored 169 runs for 8 wickets. With the help of Finn Allen’s 100 runs on 33 balls and Tim Seifert’s 58 runs on 33 balls, New Zealand scored 173 runs at the loss of 1 wicket in 12.5 overs and won the match by 9 wickets and made it to the finals.
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