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. 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.
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