There will have been several “ifs” and “buts” swirling in the minds of the Proteas cricket squad as they made their way home from the Tri-Series that finished in Zimbabwe on Saturday.
Coach Shukri Conrad employed a young squad in the series that was always going to feature a final between SA and New Zealand, barring some kind of divine intervention on behalf of the home team.
The Proteas came close to winning the final. They know they should have beaten the Black Caps from the position they were in.
But they didn’t.
It was not the first time in the series the Proteas got themselves into a winning position against New Zealand only to end up losing.
There were small margins, and the Proteas ended up on the wrong side of them. Conrad described it as the “brutality of T20 cricket”.
In the final on Saturday, his team needed seven runs off the last over with six wickets in hand.
Dewald Brevis stood tall and was smoking the ball at the Harare Sports Club, but the youngster lost his wicket on 31 (off 16 balls), followed three balls later by George Linde as the Proteas slid to a three-run defeat.
“That was a game of millimetres,” Conrad said.
“Going into the last over, you are backing yourself to get seven runs off six balls with an in-batter like Dewald. Then he gets a ball that he would normally hit out of Harare, finds the toe end of the bat, and it doesn’t go for six.
“Then George hit another, and a helluva catch by [Daryl] Mitchell. So, ifs and buts. It just wasn’t meant to be,” Conrad said.
That was the Proteas’ third loss on the bounce against the Black Caps, but Conrad took some positives from the series, bearing in mind the Kiwis were close to their regular side and his team were young and missing some key players.
There were good signs from his younger prospects ahead of upcoming Australian and England white-ball assignments and the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in early 2026.
The 22-year-old Brevis, who will be travelling with the squad to Australia in August, was among the top scorers in the series.
Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 19, who struggled and scored 31 runs in his first three innings, showed character in the final to set SA on their way with a 35-ball 51.
“Lhuan-dre is one of the bright prospects of SA cricket, and we saw that with the innings today. He’s a classy young cricketer, and exciting times lie ahead for him.
“There are big tours against England and Australia as we build up to the T20 World Cup, and I’m very happy for him.
“Young players go through a lot and sometimes don’t know how to deal with it. But for him to come back in the final and give us the foundation like he did, was great.
“Dewald is a special talent, and he is hugely disappointed that he didn’t take us home. This is the nature of T20. But he is a special talent and probably one of the sweetest strikers of the cricket ball in world cricket at the moment.
“You’re never out of the game when you still have Dewald Brevis in the sheds. I think he will be better for the experience this week.”
The other improvements came from Kwena Maphaka and Nandré Burger.
“An area that we paid particular attention to is our bowling at the death. It’s been a bugbear for us for a long time,” Conrad said.
“We’ve made huge strides insofar as that is concerned. Guys are clearer with their plans. In the last five overs, New Zealand only hit three boundaries [in the final], which is brilliant for us.”
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