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21/09/2007 18:02
Durban - The Proteas have dispersed on Friday to return to their homes and lick their wounds after their humiliating departure from the Twenty20 tournament on Thursday night.
After being the only undefeated team in the tournament, South Africa put on a dismal performance in their crucial match against India, losing by 37 runs. But what really hurt South African fans was that not only did South Africa lose the match, they failed by 10 runs to reach the moderate 126 needed for them to have a better net run rate than New Zealand and so crashed out of the tournament.
New Zealand qualified for the second semi-final against Pakistan in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon.
"It's disappointing knowing that you only lost one game and you're out of the tournament," a devastated Proteas captain Graeme Smith told journalists after the match.
"It seems a little weird. We seem to find ways of going out of tournaments.
Little sympathy
"We only lost one game. Some teams are in the semi-finals having lost two and that's a bit of a tough pill to swallow. It's not just losing - it's more the way we lost that is so hugely disappointing."
Australian coach Tim Nielsen had little sympathy for Smith and his predicament.
"That's what tournament play is all about," he said. "It's not about how many games you win - it's about making sure you win at the right time. When you get to the crunch time, you're under the pump, you need to make sure you perform.
"That's what this team (Australia) has done for so long now. They showed it again on Thursday. We were under pressure, we needed a result, and we were able to pull together as a group and give ourselves the best chance of attaining it, and in the end we pulled it off.
"If you don't win at the right time, you find yourself on the edge."
Leave for Pakistan on Tuesday
Australia lost to Zimbabwe in the first round, and to Pakistan in the second, but when they were in danger of being knocked out of the tournament, they beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets to secure a semi-final berth against India on Saturday night.
Four members of the Proteas T20 squad - Gulam Bodi, Albie Morkel, Vernon Philander and Thandi Tshabalala - will join the rest of the South Africa A side in India for a three-match one-day series.
The rest of the squad, as well as Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Paul Harris and Dale Steyn will assemble in Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon before flying to Pakistan for a tour that will include two Test and five ODI's.
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