I’d say it was lost in the powerplay. Quinton de Kock came out and played with really good intent and we couldn’t really match that. I think we were about 20 behind them at the end of our first six. The wicket did slow up, which allowed us to pull it back in the middle and we were happy to be chasing 160. But yeah, that innings was the difference.
It’s still a good pitch but a little slower than we probably expected. I’m proud of how we responded with the ball after their good powerplay, and Brook and Livingstone had an excellent partnership there to take us so close. At one stage we were favourites but T20 cricket is never that simple, and credit to South Africa for closing it out.
We restricted a really powerful line-up to what we thought was a par score so that was a great effort. It was important for those two to get that time in the middle, for Liam in particular, but he’s very understanding that it’s how T20 cricket goes sometimes if you’re batting at 5, 6, 7. He handles it well, but he’s hitting the ball brilliantly in the nets and took it into the middle today.
We know we’re still in it. We played well today, we just didn’t quite get over the line.