New Delhi: New Zealand lost the plot and their T20 World Cup match against South Africa in the powerplay overs, all-rounder Daryl Mitchell said after a seven-wicket defeat.
The Kiwis lost wickets in the early phase and reached 175 for 7 it was too low a total on an Ahmedabad pitch that was suited for strokeplay.
“I think, probably in both Powerplays we let the game slip,” Mitchell said after their loss on Saturday.
“With the bat, we lost a few too many wickets early and held ourselves back through that middle phase. And then with the ball, we’ve got to put our hands up and say we weren’t as good as we could be.
“We rebuilt and put ourselves in a position to try and capitalise late in the innings, but we couldn’t quite get to that 200 total that we wanted. We always want more runs.”
South Africa chased down the target in 17.1 overs with skipper Aiden Markram not out on 86 off 44 balls, including eight boundaries and four sixes.
“When two guys are coming pretty hard at you, that’s the nature of T20 cricket. Someone’s going to win, someone’s going to lose. Unfortunately we’re on the wrong side tonight,” he added.
Left arm seamer Marco Jansen (4/40) was the shining star for the South Africans, who varied their length and line to trouble the Kiwis.
“I thought their bowlers, especially Marco (Jansen), bowled really well. You could tell they’d played on the surface before, their plans and how they operated were clear. Take my hat off to them,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said his team would need to shift focus to their next fixture quickly as they still are in contention to advance ot the Super 8s.
“A strength of this Black Caps group is being where our feet are. We’ll take the learnings from this game and look forward to the next one. We still represent our country and want to win games,” he said.