SA vs NED: Don't Think There Is Any Point In Trying To Forget What's Happened: Temba Bavuma

South Africa‘s captain Temba Bavuma has taken a different stance following the team’s embarrassing defeat against the Netherlands in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Unlike the usual approach of quickly moving on and forgetting the disappointment of defeat, he believes that he and his teammates should not adopt that strategy.

The Proteas had made an impressive start to their campaign in the competition. They thrashed Sri Lanka by 102 runs before registering a 134-run win over five-time world champions Australia. But their form and reputation counted for little on Tuesday (October 17) as the Netherlands inflicted a humiliating 38-run defeat on them in Dharamsala.

Asked to bat first, the Dutch outfit recovered from 112 for 6 to post a competitive total of 245/8 in the allotted 43 overs. In reply, South Africa were all out for 207 runs to suffer their first defeat of the ongoing tournament.

Temba Bavuma on losing to the Netherlands:

Following the loss, Temba Bavuma did not beat around the bush as he expressed his disappointment. While he stated that the defeat has not ended South Africa’s chances in the tournament, it should force the players to feel the emotions.

“You got to let the emotion kind of seep in. Don’t think there is any point in trying to forget what’s happened. It is going to hurt, it should hurt.”

“But then you come back tomorrow, you wake up and we get back onto the journey. Our campaign is not over by any stretch of the imagination, but you got to feel the emotion of today and come back tomorrow with the head held up,” Temba Bavuma said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

One of the reasons behind the Netherlands’ big total was South Africa’s failure to contain extras. The African outfit ended up conceding 32 extras – 21 wides, one no-ball, and 10 leg byes. Speaking about it, Temba Bavuma said;

“The extras that’s something you can control. Getting 30 (32) extras, that is an extra five overs is always going to hurt you. That is a conversation for us to have – whether it is skill or a complacency thing – but at the end it did count for quite a thing.”

“We were clinical against Australia, but the challenge was always to come back and replicate that performance. The fielding wasn’t up to standard. Again if you look at the way we fielded against Australia compared to today, definitely not the same standard.

“Those are conversations we need to have. The guys need to answer the questions themselves where mentally they were. That’s definitely not the standard we’d like to show from a fielding point of view,” he added.