Mark Boucher on South Africa's T20 WC exit: A bitter pill to swallow

South African players walk back to the pavilion after beating England by 10 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday. Pic/AFP

South Africa head coach Mark Boucher says missing out on the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup due to an inferior net run-rate was a bitter pill to swallow.

South Africa emerged as a strong contender to qualify for the semi-finals as the tournament progressed, but despite winning four of their five matches, the Proteas failed to make the top four.

Eng, Oz had better run rates

In their final group game they defeated Eoin Morgan and Co. by 10 runs which was not enough to seal a top four spot as England and Australia, who also had eight points each, had a better net run-rate than the Proteas.

South Africa head coach Mark Boucher

"It's not successful because you're knocked out of the World Cup. It's a bitter pill to swallow," Boucher said at the post match conference.

"I think we played some very good cricket throughout the campaign, cricket under a lot of pressure as well after having lost our first game. We put in a lot of hard work in training, our chats were good. I think we beat the in-form side in white-ball cricket for a while now."

Having lost the toss and asked to bat, South Africa needed to restrict England below 130 to qualify for the semis but weren't able to do so. "It's a tough one for the guys in the changing room. We knew what we had to do today, the equation was very difficult for us to have to get through," Boucher said. "I just said to the guys just try control what we can control. Unfortunately, we can't control what other results are out there. We did the job today but it's quite bitter."

Missed opportunities

Boucher rued the missed opportunities South Africa could have capitalised on in the games against Australia and Bangladesh.

South Africa had almost defended 118 for 9 in their campaign opener against Australia. It was the only game they lost. "Well, the first game. The first game was tight. We just didn't bat well enough. It was tough. We lost the toss. We batted first and we weren't 100 per cent sure what a good total was because we were the first game to go out there and be played."

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