South Africa's Marco Jansen congratulates New Zealand's Finn Allen (R) after their win in the end of the 2026 ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup semi-final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Image: Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP
When Shukri Conrad was asked about the Proteas’ dismal record in knockout matches at ICC tournaments, he responded that he hadn’t been part of one before.
On a sobering night at Eden Gardens, Conrad discovered that he was not immune to the Proteas’ habitual trait of not pitching up when it matters most.
While New Zealand were outstanding in all that they did on Wednesday evening in crushing the Proteas by nine wickets in the first semi-final of this T20 World Cup, Conrad will wonder for a while just how his team managed to deliver such a humiliating performance after having won seven straight matches to reach the knockout stages.
The Black Caps had never beaten the Proteas in a T20 World Cup match, but they do hold the “psychological edge”, according to former captain Faf du Plessis, in ICC knockout matches.
They stretched that record to four matches through a clinical exhibition by embracing the occasion rather than shying away from it. They were stifling with the ball, whether quick or slow, and then won at a gallop in chasing down the Proteas’ under-par 169/8 with a massive 41 balls to spare.
Everything seemed to go wrong from the moment New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and inserted the Proteas.
STUMPED: Proteas allrounder Corbin Bosch is clean bowled in the ICC T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to New Zealand at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Image: AFP
Off-spinner Cole Edward McConchie, who has yet to play an international outside of the subcontinent, bowled just one over in the Proteas’ innings. It was the second, but arguably the most impactful, with McConchie dominating his match-ups by claiming both lefties Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton off successive deliveries.
It was a punch straight to the gut. Much like Finn Allen’s unbeaten 33-ball 100 - the fastest in Men’s T20 World Cup history - that sealed the Proteas’ fate in just 12.5 overs.
Allen blasted 10 boundaries and eight sixes with each maximum drilling the nail deeper into the Proteas’ coffin.
To fully understand New Zealand’s dominance, Allen was not even the Black Caps aggressor during the initial stages of the run chase. His opening partner Tim Seifert, who benefitted from an early let off by a running Quinton de Kock, dominated the powerplay.
The pair slugged 117 off just 55 balls for the first wicket, and when Kagiso Rabada eventually clean bowled Seifert for 58 off 33 balls (7x4, 2x6), there was only a muted celebration for the Proteas had been knocked down by then and were simply waiting for the towel to be thrown into the ring.
But their mauling was not over just yet for Allen then went into over-drive, clubbing boundaries almost at will, with the Proteas’ bowlers simply having no answer to the onslaught.
Allen’s ball-striking was on a next level on the night, finishing the match in supreme style with two boundaries, followed by successive maximums, and then a further boundary off Marco Jansen to not only send the Black Caps to Ahmedabad for Sunday’s showpiece, but to also reach the magical three-figure mark.
Jansen had hoped his Kolkata semi-final nightmares of two years ago had dissipated when he fought a lone battle with the bat to score an unbeaten 55 earlier but ultimately conceded 53 runs in his 2.3 overs with the ball.
The lanky allrounder was not the only one to suffer on the night as all the Proteas bowlers - bar Rabada's 9.33 - conceded in excess of 10 runs to the over.
Equally, apart from Jansen, Dewald Brevis (34) and Tristan Stubbs (29), the batters were also left floundering on the night against some exceptional bowling from the Black Caps.
Proteas captain Aiden Markram admitted in the aftermath that his team were utterly outplayed on a dreadful night.
"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," Markram said.
"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."
ICC T20 WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL SCOREBOARD
South Africa: 169/8 (Jansen 55, Brevis 34, Stubbs 29, McConchie 2/9, Ravindra 2/29)
New Zealand: 173/1 (Allen 100*, Seifert 58, Rabada 1/28)
New Zealand won by 9 wickets, avance to the final