Proteas skipper vows they will learn from semi-final heartbreak

Disappointed South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has revealed that his side will learn from their semi-finals mistakes at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

New Zealand claimed their Champions Trophy semi-final match-up with South Africa by 50 runs in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday.

“So, I think for me personally, we’ll obviously have a chat as a team and see what the other guys think. But just taking care of those key moments in the game,” he told the Champions Trophy website after their disappointing loss.

Bavuma also took personal accountability after he was unable to turn a solid innings into a big one. This is a problem a couple of the Kiwi top-order batters didn’t have, after both Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson both scored centuries at better than a run-a-ball.

Key partnerships

“From a batting point of view, we just weren’t able to (build) those partnerships,” he continued.

“There were one or two partnerships there. But I think (we) probably needed either myself or Rassie van der Dussen to go on and emulate what (New Zealand’s) top four batters did. A little bit of a soft dismissal from my (perspective).

“Ideally, (we) would’ve wanted both of us to keep going, at least to the 30th over. We know how destructive our middle order can be. (But) unfortunately we weren’t able to set that foundation for them. That just left a little too much for our middle order to do in the end.

“(New Zealand’s total of 362/6) was always going to require someone to play well. And we had David (Miller) who did that, but we probably needed someone else as well.”

Middle overs of each team’s batting

South Africa coach Rob Walter agreed with Bavuma’s assessment. He pointed to how the middle overs of each team’s batting innings proved to be the difference in the contest.

“We just lost a few key wickets in the middle,” Walter told the media post-game.

“If we managed to maintain a strong partnership there, I think it would have been a pretty tight finish. Yes, we could bemoan our execution a little bit. Certainly you’ll never question the effort of the guys and we sort of threw whatever we could at them. But unfortunately, we couldn’t break that partnership, which really set them up to push towards the end.”

South Africa will have the chance to put most of these learnings into practice in this year’s ICC World Test Championship final mid-year, against Australia.

Beyond that, their sights are firmly set on the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2027. They will co-host it with Zimbabwe and Namibia.

“We’re still evolving as a team, there’s no doubt in my mind,” Walter added.

“Two and a half years to 2027 and that’s the eyes on the prize.” – www.icc-cricket.com.

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