10.20pm Right then, for New Zealand, Kolkata tonight is the City of Joy. For South Africa, not quite so much. While the Kiwis will head to Ahmedabad now, while waiting to find out who they take on in the final, South Africa will be heading home thinking where it all went wrong. New Zealand will of course find out the other finalists tomorrow, when India take on England at the Wankhede. But for today, that’s all the action from us. On behalf of Ekanth, Thilak and Raghav, this is Abhimanyu signing off.
Finn Allen, the POTM: “Just tried to get in good positions and perform for the team. [The plan for the opening partnership] We wanted to start well and put them on the back foot early. Easy for me when Timmy is going like that. I can just watch and get him on strike. He batted on a flyer. Huge game for us. Timmy and I just kept ensuring we’re looking straight and going hard. [On adapting to different pitches and being aggressive] You adapt to the wicket. Training is really important to get a feel of the wicket. We knew it would be black soil, we had that intel. Shows how important that series was before the World Cup. [On getting to the final] You take the positives from the game and celebrate a little but you have a final to look forward to on Sunday.”
Mitch Santner: “Yeah it was nice. When you see how good South Africa are, to put on a performance like that in a crunch game is pretty pleasing. [On their planning and coming back from the previous defeat] I guess every time you show up and lose a game you’re learning from it. I guess today was just about trying to keep pressure on throughout, and when you take wickets consistently it’s a challenge to keep going with the bat. [On using McConchie in the powerplay] There was a plan for the first two overs and then a free-for-all. Then with Brevis coming in, we knew he likes spin but we thought it would be better spinning it away from him. [Tim and Finn] It was special, it was nice to watch, not going to lie. We were very happy with 170 going into the break but in T20, you never know. Wickets on the powerplay would have made it a challenge. But they took it on. And Finny just carried on. And 33-ball 100 is not bad. [The perfect game and repeating it] It would be nice if we could. Of course it’s a different ground and red soil, black soil, lot of variables. Pretty good performance. I don’t know if it was a perfect game, but earlier we have been good in periods, today we were good all the way through.”
Aiden Markram: “I think you look at the conditions and they bowled really well up front. Credit to their bowling unit. And obviously when someone plays an innings like that, you don’t often come out on the right side of that. To get to 170 was a great effort to be fair. As it goes in T20 cricket, they got off to a flyer in the powerplay. Massive credit to Finn Allen’s knock and Seifert’s knock to kill the game off as early as they did. I think we expected the wicket to play really well, looked really good to the eye. Maybe we had to try and scrape our way to 190 and we’d be in the game. Obviously disappointed in the result but really proud of these guys. Played so well in this tournament. I think we’ll let the emotions settle first and foremost and then have a discussion as a group. You get back on the horse and come back. Hugely disappointed. We’ll have to come out stronger and be better as a team.”
Joel: “Finn Allen. Remember the name!” — Poetic that he received his POTM award at the Eden Gardens from none other than Carlos Brathwaite!
Ravi: “SA got “finnished” in some style !!. “
Gaurav J: “SA were about a 100 short?” — Yep, around that much!
Nagesh: “Finntastic knock!!”
10pm A World Cup semi-final is not the worst of times to hit the fastest T20I century in a match between two full-member nations, and that’s exactly what Finn Allen has done here. If South Africa thought they had a fighting chance at the innings break, Allen and Tim Seifert removed any hopes. What a convincing way to reach the final for New Zealand. Against a team that hammered them earlier in the tournament, against a team unbeaten through the World Cup and one of the favourites to win it. For South Africa, it’s another case of heartbreak after coming so close. 2023 comes to mind. They played oh so well throughout this World Cup, but have fallen so close to the finish.
