South Africa were handed their second defeat of the opening spherical.
Competing in what could possibly be a precursor to the Cricket World Cup remaining, South Africa were utterly outplayed in opposition to India of their round-robin match in Kolkata on Sunday, head coach Rob Walter admitted.
The host nation racked up 326/5 from their 50 overs, led by veteran batter Virat Kohli who contributed an unbeaten 101.
Chasing 327 runs to win, the Proteas by no means acquired going, with the complete batting order falling aside as they were bowled out for simply 83 runs.
“To be fair, it was just a day that we were out-skilled really,” Walter mentioned.
While the hosts remained unbeaten within the latter levels of the opening spherical, South Africa were left reeling from their second crushing defeat of the match.
And whereas they had already certified for subsequent week’s semi-finals, questions resurfaced about their inconsistency, in addition to their struggles to chase down huge targets.
Turning the tables
Walter, nonetheless, backed his gamers, insisting it simply wasn’t their day. He felt they had the power to bounce again in an try to interrupt the nation’s prolonged World Cup trophy drought.
If they turned out in opposition to India within the playoffs, he believed they might hit again with power.
“This game is a funny game and you get taught new lessons every single day and get surprised every single day, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the tables turned the next time around,” he mentioned.
“The beauty of it is that there may well be another shot for us and we’ve been given an opportunity to learn from that.”
Recovering from defeat
Walter did admit that they would want to regroup and get better forward of the semi-finals.
Though they had another first-round match in opposition to in-form minnows Afghanistan on Friday, the Proteas were already looking forward to the playoffs, and Walter mentioned they would want to select themselves up from their newest defeat earlier than they turned out within the semi-finals.
“The guys have worked incredibly hard to this point and we have invested a huge amount of time into our preparation,” he mentioned.
“So now it’s really about just mentally recovering, physically recovering and being ready to compete like we have the whole tournament.”
Meanwhile, Cricket South Africa confirmed that seam bowler Lizaad Williams had returned house on Monday for the beginning of his youngster, however he was anticipated to re-join the Proteas squad forward of the playoffs.
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