‘It was just that bad night’: Aiden Markram’s painful admission after New Zealand hammering

South Africa captain Aiden Markram admitted it was simply a night where very little went his side’s way as a rampant New Zealand national cricket team stormed into the T20 World Cup final with a crushing nine-wicket win at Eden Gardens.

New Zealand’s charge was led by a breathtaking 33-ball century from Finn Allen, the fastest hundred in T20 World Cup history, as they chased down 170 in just 12.5 overs. For Markram, the damage was done early.

“I think you look at conditions early and they bowled really well up front. Ball didn’t quite feel like coming on, some were just stopping on the wicket and some were hitting quite low on the bat and they made scoring really tough and through that pressure builds and you lose wickets unfortunately,” Markram said.

He credited the Kiwi bowling unit for squeezing his side during the powerplay, where scoring never quite flowed. “So give credit to their bowling unit and obviously with the bat, someone plays an innings like that, don’t think you will come out on the right side of the result many times as a fielding team.”

South Africa eventually posted 169 for 8, thanks largely to Marco Jansen’s unbeaten 54 off 30 balls and a crucial stand with Tristan Stubbs after they had slumped to 77 for 5.

Markram felt there was still hope at the break.

“To get to 170 was a great effort to be fair. At the halfway point we really felt like we had a sniff,” he said.

That optimism quickly faded as Allen and Tim Seifert tore into the bowling. “But then, as it goes in T20 cricket.. (in) the powerplay (they) got off to a flyer and can’t protect every boundary unfortunately, and yeah they got away and then from there it was really hard to pull it back.”

Markram reserved special praise for the openers who killed the contest inside the first six overs. “So we give massive credit to Finn Allen’s knock, Tim Seifert’s knock to kill the game as early as they did, and yeah unfortunately, it was just that bad night for us tonight.”

Reflecting on what could have been done differently, the skipper suggested a quicker tactical adjustment with the bat might have helped.

“It’s hard to say right now. We’ll reflect as the group. I think we expected the wicket to play really well. It looked pretty good to the eye, so potentially just adapt a bit quicker with the bats and go back to maybe a bit more old school approach, set it up and try to scrape your way to 190, and maybe you’ll be in the game from there.”

Despite the disappointment of falling short of another final, Markram stood firmly behind his squad. “So yeah, we’ll reflect as a group. Obviously disappointed with the result, but very proud of this group of guys who have played some really good cricket throughout this comp, and it’s just an unfortunate evening really.”