‘It was just an unfortunate evening’ – Aiden Markram reflects on South Africa’s disappointing exit as New Zealand win semi-final to book Motera ticket

The law of averages finally kicked in as South Africa lost their first game of the T20 World Cup 2026 in the first semi-final of the tournament against New Zealand. The BlackCaps defeated the Proteas on Wednesday, March 04, in an emphatic fashion to make their way into the finals, which will now be played on Sunday in Ahmedabad – a city where the Aiden Markram-led side played the majority of its games.

Meanwhile, Markram said that their total of 169 for 8 was clearly not enough and that they should have tried to accelerate a little earlier in the first innings to look for posting something in excess of 190. Nonetheless, the South Africans are now out of the tournament after breaking their unbeaten streak, but Markram couldn’t be prouder of the way that his men played in the twenty-team tournament.

“We’ll reflect as a group. We expected the wicket to play really well. It looked pretty good to the eye. So, potentially just adapt a bit quicker with the bat and go back to a little bit more of an old-school approach, set it up and try to scrap your way to 190, and maybe you’ll be in the game from there. So, yeah, we’ll reflect as a group. Obviously, disappointed with the result, but very proud of this group of guys. They played some really good cricket throughout this competition, and it was just an unfortunate evening, really,” Markram said at the post-match presentation. 

Markram also lauded the Kiwi bowlers for dominating early in the game. He believes that it is something that put the South Africans on the back foot, after which making a comeback was not easy.

“They bowled really well upfront. The ball didn’t quite feel like it was coming on; some were just stopping in the wickets, some were hitting quite low on the bat, and they made scoring really tough. And then through that, pressure builds and you lose wickets, unfortunately. So give credit to that bowling unit,” Markram concluded.

During the second innings, the Proteas bowlers looked quite pale with their line and lengths, as openers Finn Allen (100* off 33) and Tim Seifert (58 off 33) fired from the word go. The end of the powerplay would otherwise mean a slowing down of run-scoring, but the New Zealanders accelerated even further instead. They chased down the total in just 12.5 overs with nine wickets to spare. 

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