Proteas captain, Temba Bavuma, said the emotions after their shock 38-run loss to the Netherlands in the third game of their World Cup campaign would have to “seep in” before they could process the ramifications of the defeat which followed massive opening victories against Sri Lanka (102 runs) and Australia (134 runs).

“From 112 for six, we were looking at chasing no more than 200 so we definitely dropped the ball there letting them get to 245,” Bavuma said. “But we’re still confident with the batting, chasing down totals, we didn’t adapt to their dual spin option in the Power Play,” Bavuma said.

“You have to let the emotions seep in, there’s no point trying to forget what’s happened, it’s going to hurt and it should hurt. But we’ll wake up tomorrow and get back onto the journey, the campaign is not over by any stretch of the imagination, but we have the emotion and hurt.”

After a resounding performance with bat and ball against Australia, the Proteas became ragged and dysfunctional with the ball against the Netherlands bowling far too many short balls and conceding a staggering 32 extras. The fielding, too, was below par.

“The challenge is always to come back and replicate, 32 extras is always going to hurt you, I don’t know if it’s a complacency thing. The fielding wasn’t up to standard, those are questions the guys will have to answer themselves, where they were mentally, but that’s not the standard we want to show from a fielding point of view,” Bavuma said.

PROUD NETHERLANDS SKIPPER

Netherlands skipper and player-of-the-match, Scott Edwards, admitted his eighth-wicket partnership of 64 with Roelof van der Merwe changed the course of the match: “He’s great fun to bat with and hits the ball in very unconventional areas, he definitely turned things around for us.

“I’m just very proud to be able to play my part, we want to reach the semifinals and, if you want to do that, you have to beat teams, and South Africa are one of the favourites the way they are playing at the moment,” Edwards said.