South Africa head coach Rob Walter commended his team’s Champions Trophy campaign, emphasising that their semi-final loss to New Zealand does not overshadow their strong performances throughout the tournament. He urged fans to recognise their consistency despite one off-day.
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00:00What is it that you think is hurting South Africa, because of another ICC event, another
00:06knockout stage, Boeing out of the knockout.
00:09What do you think was a factor that went against you guys today?
00:14Was it the last 10 overs, the amount of run New Zealand scored, or was it?
00:21I don't think it was any one particular thing that resulted in the loss, probably a couple.
00:29We could have handled the last 10 overs a little bit better, they got away from us a
00:33little bit.
00:34There was a period, sort of in the middle of the innings, where Kane and Ratchan started
00:40to up their rates a bit, and we missed a few opportunities there, we could have slowed
00:46things down.
00:47Then obviously the partnership that got broken when we were batting, we were just starting
00:52to get going, and that partnership got broken and really slowed us down in the middle.
00:58Then obviously we saw Dave play unbelievably well in the end to get 100, and then you
01:02lose by 50 and you're just one partnership away from doing something special.
01:09Rob, Keshav's usually really good in the middle overs at reigning and opposition side in,
01:15but Ratchan and Kane really seemed to target him through that middle phase.
01:20Do you think potentially that is a point, a bit of a sliding doors moment, because obviously
01:25Mitch Santner in the second innings was quite good through that middle phase?
01:29Yeah, I mean obviously I think they played particularly well against Keshav.
01:35I think the ball did spin a little bit more in the second innings, which would have contributed
01:40to that.
01:41But as I said, I thought they played him very well.
01:44Keshav's a world-class bowler, we know that.
01:47So to put him under pressure and sort of turn the tide a little bit there, you know, changed
01:52the flow of the game.
01:53So we have to commend the two world-class batters batting together, and they played
01:57particularly well.
01:59Would you have batted first as well, if you won the toss?
02:02Yeah, we would have batted first.
02:05Well, tough luck, another semi-final, another defeat.
02:09You guys fought well.
02:11I wanted to ask you that after losing the toss, don't you think that you guys didn't
02:17have plan B, because the way Rachin and Kane Williamson were playing, they were so smooth,
02:24no hassles.
02:25The ball was coming nicely over the bat, and it looked like that you didn't have a plan
02:31B or plan C?
02:32No, I don't think that's entirely accurate.
02:36We certainly, you know, we tried to change up, we tried to change the pace.
02:40I think the ball wasn't really gripping at that stage in the early phases, so the ball
02:45kept sliding on.
02:46I mean, it's just plain to see that it was a pretty good batting wicket.
02:50I don't think you can score 360 if it's not a good batting wicket.
02:56And yeah, so no, through no lack of effort, I don't think, I mean, we had spoken about
02:59our options, if it was a good wicket, which we knew it would be.
03:04And whilst, yes, we could bemoan our execution a little bit, certainly you'll never question
03:10the effort of the guys, and we sort of threw whatever we could at them, but unfortunately,
03:15you know, we couldn't break that partnership, which really set them up to push towards the
03:19end.
03:20Do you think Baboumas and Rassi's comparatively slow inning cost South Africa the match?
03:27No, if you look at the comparative scores along the way for the first, we were only,
03:33I think, four runs behind at the 20-over mark, and the same at 30.
03:38So I don't think their partnership cost us.
03:43We see the tempo of the game at these grounds tends to be like that.
03:47It's a good, stable partnership at the start.
03:51The run rate sort of increases gradually, and then there's a burst at the end.
03:54So I mean, we just lost a few key wickets in the middle.
03:57If we managed to maintain a strong partnership there, I think it would have been a pretty
04:01tight finish.
04:02So yeah, comparatively, if you look at the first 20 overs, there was nothing that separated
04:06the two teams.
04:08If you compare the spin bowling attacks of the both teams, so New Zealand spin bowling
04:14was really good, but African couldn't ball spin good too much.
04:21So is it only the toss factor that the second bowling was supposed to be good in spin, or
04:30you feel that New Zealand spin attack was good rather than African's?
04:34I mean, I think you have to acknowledge the black cap spinners have bowled well for the
04:40whole competition thus far.
04:43You know, Michael Bracewell sort of slides under the radar, but I think it was just two
04:46games ago that he bowled 10 overs for 24, took four wickets.
04:52And then Mitch Sadner is a quality operator.
04:54So I mean, the two of them working together, mind you, their run rates are still up there.
05:00The ball did spin a bit more in the second innings, there's no doubt about that.
05:05And so, you know, a bit of conditions, but also hats off to their quality as well.
05:10Coach, hard luck today, but what are the positives which you are going to take back home and
05:25how's the hospitality throughout this tournament and the arrangement, especially in Pakistan?
05:32We've had a wonderful time in Pakistan.
05:34I think it's been a great tournament, great to spend time here.
05:39The hospitality has been amazing and we've been treated exceptionally well.
05:44So I certainly leave Pakistan with fond memories of this tournament.
05:50I think there's been positives along the way.
05:53We've seen different guys step up.
05:55Champions Trophy is such a short tournament to think about.
05:59We actually only played two games to get to the semis.
06:02It feels like we've been here a while and we've only played two matches.
06:07I think as a team, we played really well today.
06:09It wasn't our best day out there.
06:10We acknowledge that and we're up front with that.
06:15But we still saw some contributions from an old wise head who's just come in,
06:21scored 100, which is awesome to see.
06:25Rasif Anderson again was outstanding.
06:28Three consecutive 50s in the competition.
06:31I thought our bowlers toiled.
06:32It's not easy to bowl in those conditions in the day.
06:36I thought they did their level best to try and restrict the guys to a total that we could chase down.
06:42So we've done well.
06:44The two games that we won, we won convincingly and we did well with bat and ball and fielded
06:49exceptionally well.
06:50Our conversion rate was second in the competition.
06:52So yeah, a lot to smile about, but certainly very disappointing to lose tonight.
06:59Thanks, Rob.
07:00A couple of questions from back home.
07:04What do you think the team has done right in this tournament so far in terms of building
07:11up towards 2027?
07:12And what do you think those lessons are going forward?
07:16Excuse me.
07:18I think I've just answered it.
07:22In the wins, we managed to put some significant partnerships together.
07:26We had guys contributing significantly with the bat.
07:29From a bowling point of view, I think our biggest development was our accuracy.
07:34We were able to be very accurate as a seam unit.
07:38And that's something that we've been working really hard on.
07:42Every game we play is a learning opportunity.
07:45We just keep trying to take the little lessons.
07:47Today is a hard lesson.
07:49You feel it a little bit more because it's the end of a campaign.
07:53But we certainly continue to keep learning from things, little bits here and there that
07:58we can do better.
08:00We're still evolving as a team.
08:02There's no doubt in my mind.
08:04Two and a half years to 2027 and that's the eyes on the prize.
08:09And just reflecting on the tournament as a whole and the group that you were in, how
08:13do you feel you guys fared against all of your opponents?
08:18Yeah.
08:18People, I think, refer to our pool as a pool of death because of the strength of the competition
08:24in it.
08:25We saw Afghanistan beat England and play exceptionally well.
08:29Australia, obviously, the other side to get through.
08:32We really missed not playing them in our second game.
08:36I think that would have been an excellent competitive match there.
08:40But we did what we had to do in the two games in the pool rounds and won convincingly well
08:46and played some seriously good cricket.
08:47So it was just a bad day to have a bad day today.
08:51Thanks very much, Will.