The Proteas fell to arguably their worst ever ‘choke’ when they were upset by Netherlands in Adelaide on Sunday, a loss that abruptly drew the curtains on their T20 World Cup campaign.

The Netherlands were one of the four sides who had to qualify for the World Cup Super 12, and all South Africa needed to do was beat them to progress to the semi-finals. They didn’t, and shocking lost by 13 runs after chasing a higher-than-expected target of 159. 

However, poor game management, inaccuracy with the ball and a lack of better judgment of the conditions with the bat had put paid to South Africa’s chances on the day.

Aside from Anrich Nortje, the South African bowlers – especially Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi – were exceedingly expensive with the ball. 

Rabada went for 12.33 an over and Ngidi 11.66, both of whom had no wickets to their names. Gratefully, fans could tip their caps to Nortje, who only went for 2.50 and had claimed a wicket.

In their chase, the Proteas failed to be street-smart. They chose to chase singles on the short boundary and went for big hits on the long boundary – they were found wanting and dumbfounded. 

To Netherlands’ credit, they bowled with precision and purpose. The Dutch bowlers reacted to the conditions of the wicket superbly and smothered SA with slower balls, which had varied in pace and subdued the acclaimed South African batsmen.

Head coach Mark Boucher was asked if this had been “one of the worst” departures for the Proteas at an ICC tournament, to which he responded: “Probably as a coach, yes.”

His timid and dejected response said it all. The Proteas had it all going for them after thrashing Bangladesh and beating India, but that infamous chokers tag again had the final say on a side that continuously fail to create their own destiny. 

“It is quite frustrating because as a player you can at least still have a say in the game. As a coach you have to leave it up to other individuals to go out and try to perform,” added Boucher, who’ll now vacate his position as Proteas boss as per the official announcement two months ago.

“If you look at the way we started the game, our energies were low – I haven’t put my finger on it yet or spoken to the guys about where they felt it went wrong.

“Our plans were there but we didn’t quite use them well enough. If we look at the game as a whole Netherlands out-bowled us – they bowled with good plans and to the longer side of the field.

“They were just able to create more pressure than we were on them.”

Boucher added that as a coaching set-up they had “ticked all the boxes that we needed to tick”, and hinted that they had little to no restraint over what had happened in their defeat to the Netherlands. 

“Sometimes you’re in control of things, sometimes you’re not.”

Skipper Temba Bavuma echoed Boucher’s sentiments regarding the pitfalls of their game management on the day.

“With a performance like that, you can pick out a lot of things. We didn’t put them under pressure with the ball, which didn’t back up our decision to bowl first.

“With the bat, we just couldn’t get any type of momentum or flow into our innings. We couldn’t adapt to the slower nature of the wicket, and they made use of the dimensions of the field a lot better than we did. They forced us to hit a lot straighter to the longer boundary.

“It’s disappointing for all of us. The most disappointing thing is not being able to go over the line when we needed to.”