Temba Bavuma expressed disappointment at his "soft dismissal" and at failing to set up a foundation for the middle order as South Africa went down by 50 runs against New Zealand in the second semi-final of the Champions Trophy in Lahore.
Chasing a mammoth 363, South Africa got off to a good start, reaching 125 for 1 in the 23rd over. With Rassie van der Dussen and Bavuma having added 105 for the second wicket, South Africa could have harboured hopes of chasing the target down, but both batters fell in quick succession to disrupt their plans.
"Ideally, you would've wanted the both of us to keep going - at least till the 30th over. We know how destructive our middle order can be when they're coming in that last 20 overs," Bavuma said at the post-match presentation. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to set that foundation for them. Little bit of a soft dismissal, at least from my side. I think that just left too much for our middle order."
Bavuma admitted 363 was always going to be a tough chase, and South Africa needed all of their batters to stand up and string partnerships. David Miller hammered an unbeaten 67-ball century but didn't get much support from the others as South Africa were kept to 312 for 9.
For New Zealand, both Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson smashed hundreds, and Bavuma felt either he or van der Dussen needed to match those efforts and stay right till the end.
"Yeah, look, I do think it [target] was above par. I think as well as they bat, we felt that if [the target was] anything around 350 - not over 350 - we'd back ourselves to chase the score with the wicket hopefully getting better," Bavuma said. "From a batting point of view, we just weren't able to really get those partnerships. There were one or two partnerships there, but I think you probably needed either myself or Rassie van der Dussen to go on and emulate what their top four batters did.
"But yeah, 360 was always going to be tough. It was always going to require someone to play well. We had David who did that, but we probably needed someone else as well."
Bavuma also heaped praise on the New Zealand batters. While Ravindra scored 108 and Williamson 102, Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips contributed a quick 49 each to put the target beyond South Africa.
"They really put us under pressure from the get-go, [with] the way they were able to pierce the off side, and I think even in the middle [overs], how they were able to just keep scoring boundaries," Bavuma said. "Normally, we pride ourselves in our ability to take wickets - especially in that middle period - but we weren't able to. Obviously, if you go into the death phase with wickets in hand, it always becomes difficult to contain them, especially on these type of wickets. So yeah, kudos to them.
"Credit to their betters, Kane Williamson, Rachin, and even the guys who came in as well - Mitchell, as well as Phillips. They put us under pressure with the bat."
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner was also effusive in his praise for Williamson, who scored his century at more than a run a ball.
"Yeah, he keeps doing it," Santner said. "I think that partnership [with Ravindra] was massive for us. It looked like he might've been frustrated at times but he was able to keep going and get through little periods where South Africa had challenged us. I think they decided to flip the switch a little bit earlier and were able to kind of cash in, and then the boys to back that up and the finish to get us up to 360, where probably 320 may not have been enough."
New Zealand meet India in the Champions Trophy final in Dubai on Sunday, in a replay of the title match from 25 years ago.