Captain Juan James on South Africa's two wicket semi final defeat by India

Transcript

00:00 >> Great. Juan, thank you very much for joining us. This is the post-match press conference

00:07 following the semifinal between India and South Africa here in Benoni. We have South

00:11 Africa captain Juan James with us. We'll take some questions from the floor, please. >> Good

00:17 afternoon, Juan. You look back at that fight back late in the game. Was it a case of leaving

00:24 too much to do at the end, whereas there could have been a bit more that could have been

00:27 done to stem that early partnership? >> I think, to be honest, Uday and Session batted

00:32 really well in the middle. We were trying our best to get them out, but we just couldn't.

00:36 I think it's just a matter of trying to fight back too late. I just think we didn't manage

00:42 to get the wickets earlier. >> 23 whites as part of 26 extras. You look

00:49 back in the game of a middle -- not a low-scoring game, but a middle-of-the-way game. 26 extras.

00:56 You look at that and feel that's where you most probably let India get away with the

00:59 game. >> I think it's been an issue throughout the

01:03 whole tournament. It's tough. I don't actually know what to say, to be honest. It's just

01:10 really tough. >> How are you feeling with the game itself?

01:14 South Africa started to finish stronger, but also kept in the game. How are you feeling

01:20 off the result? >> I'm bitterly disappointed. Having all that

01:25 hope just fades away like that. It's pretty brutal, to be honest. It's just not how I

01:31 feel at the moment, to be honest. >> When you look back at Koi and Nye, talk

01:37 us through that particular spell of theirs. They bowled well at the top, and when they

01:41 came back, they still kept the pressure on. >> They've been unbelievable for us throughout

01:46 the whole tournament. It's pretty standard for them to do that. They've just been unbelievable.

01:53 >> And Richard and Luandrie, that partnership, how critical was it, especially with Richard

01:58 trying his best to get through the innings against some very tight spin bowling?

02:02 >> That's something we spoke about, just putting our ego aside. I think he did really well,

02:06 especially not having scored a lot of runs leading up to this game. I think it's a really

02:11 special knock for me. >> I just want to ask you about, as the game

02:16 in the second inning started to move towards a result, and you obviously clawed it back,

02:20 and it was quite animated out there in the middle between you and the boys, and it seemed

02:25 like you were obviously very close as a team. Is that something you'd characterize as one

02:28 of your key strengths? >> Yeah, I think we quite, like I said yesterday,

02:32 we've got a tight bunch, and we always fight for each other, and so I think that's probably

02:37 what came out there at the end. >> Always hard to look forward at these stages,

02:41 especially so soon after a loss like that. But what is next for this team? You've got

02:45 a lot of promising young players out there, yourself included. The future's bright for

02:50 South African cricket, right? >> Yeah, we'll probably just go back to our

02:54 provinces, I think, after this, a couple of the lads will probably get a few contacts.

02:57 So yeah, hopefully they can just do well and perform on the domestic scene.

03:02 >> Thank you, John. Nothing else? All good. Thank you very much.

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