India's WC hopes dented after 76-run thrashing by South Africa in Super 8s

India suffered their first defeat of the T20 World Cup and ended a winning streak of 12 matches when they were beaten by the Proteas by 76 runs in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

"Very disappointed with the performance. But, when you set up or set out to win a World Cup, don't expect someone to come deliver the World Cup to you halfway through the competition. So we understand we've made a lot of mistakes tonight. We understand you're probably allowed one mess-up in this phase of the competition," ten Doeschate told reporters in a post-match presser.

With a huge loss in Ahmedabad, India now face a stiff task to defend the title they famously won in Barbados in 2024. The defending champions will now most likely need victories against Zimbabwe and the West Indies in their remaining Super Eight fixtures to qualify for the semi-finals, while just one win may also be enough to progress should the Proteas remain unbeaten during the phase.

"We've messed up on a grand scale, and now the onus is on this group of guys to turn around and put in two solid performances against Zimbabwe and the West Indies. Obviously with the way the group goes, you need at least four points to get through now, and it's going to need two big performances and a big bounce back from everyone involved," he added.

Explaining the rationale behind picking Washington Sundar ahead of vice-captain Axar Patel, ten Doeschate stated it came because of the presence of three left-handers in South Africa's top five.

"In our analysis, we thought the biggest threat was going to come from Quinton and Ryan Rickleton and David Miller. And when you can only choose one of the two (between Washington Sundar and Axar Patel), we thought of someone who can bowl in the powerplay.

"Axar obviously occasionally bowls in the powerplay, but we feel we've got Washi to a point where he's found a way of being effective in the powerplay, and he obviously didn't bowl in the powerplay tonight, so it looks like we've purely gone on who's going to bowl through the middle, in which case you would choose Axar.

"But the strategy was around that and I think in a tournament like this you want or you expect all players to understand that the best intentions were trying to pick the best 11 to win the game and I hope Axar takes it in the same spirit as well," he added.

Reflecting on the top-order batters Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma's lean patch in the tournament, the assistant coach said, "I certainly won't make excuses for Abhi or Tilak, they don't need excuses made for them, but I think Abhi's preparation coming into the World Cup with the food poisoning that he had at one stage has obviously hampered his progress in terms of where we want him to be at this phase.

"You want him to be up and running and sort of confident in his swing and confident in his game plan, and when you score three zeros, that is going to start weighing on you. I saw some really good signs on Friday night in the nets; I think I mentioned it in the presser then. But he looks a little bit short, and our job as the coaching staff is to pull that right. We've got four days to do that," he concluded.

- IANS