Then, they were the tournament’s only unbeaten side after seven straight wins. Now, they are out of the running for the trophy, which means their World Cup cabinet remains empty and their reputation for bottling it under pressure remains.

Never one to mince words, Conrad took the loss on the nose, so to speak, and did not shy away from how chastening it felt. “I don’t know if tonight was a choke. I thought it was a bloody walloping. I think in order for you to choke, you must have had a sniff in the game,” Conrad said in Kolkata. “We didn’t have a sniff. In South Africa, we say we got moered snotklap, also a South African word meaning a real hiding.”

Though there were no tears and no one had to be picked up off the floor, as has been the case on previous occasions, most notably the 2015 World Cup semi-final which South Africa also lost to New Zealand, South Africa still looked shell-shocked by how completely dominated they were.

After being sent in to bat at a venue and in conditions that suit the chasing team, South Africa were never in the game. They lost both left-handers in the top three, Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickleton, to offspinner Cole McConchie and were 77 for 5 just after the halfway stage. While there are questions to be asked about the kinds of shots they chose to play and whether there was uncertainty in how they approached the innings, Conrad also gave the opposition – coached by his predecessor Rob Walter – their props for a disciplined effort.

“They strangled us up front, we lost wickets and we didn’t get any sort of momentum going,” he said “A hell of a lot didn’t go right tonight, but that was probably enforced because they were so good and they never gave us a sniff. I’m not going to sit here and try and make excuses for a bad night. We weren’t good and they were excellent.”

He also used his praise of New Zealand to play down talk of the sense of occasion and knockout cricket becoming too big for South Africa. “The calibre of bowling tonight coupled with the wicket made it particularly tough for us and whether you’re alluding to it (a lack of calmness) because it’s the semi-final, that’s why there wasn’t the calmness, I don’t think it was that,” he said. “New Zealand really were really, really good tonight. They gave us absolutely nothing and they really squeezed particularly well. Their spinners were exceptional in those conditions.”

“Our guys come off and they think 170 could be competitive and they meant that if batting conditions had stayed the same, it could be competitive,” Prince said. “Conditions got better, the ball was sliding on and we probably also weren’t at our best today. In the second innings, the ball was just sliding off the pitch and off the face of the bat. And once they got the ball rolling on the outfield, it beat the sweepers everywhere. Whereas in the first innings, it was almost impossible to do that.”

Like many South Africans, Prince was left with a hollow feeling of what could have been especially given the unbeaten streak South Africa went into the semi-final with.

“Obviously, we played a lot of good cricket. It feels a little bit, I’m not sure if unfair is the right word, that when you look at a lot of the T20 leagues around the world, the team that dominates and plays that well gets a second crack at it,” Prince said. “Obviously, in World Cup cricket, you don’t get a second crack because it’s not like the playoffs and all those types of things. It’s straight knockout cricket, and people might come with the same argument that we’re not so good when it comes to knockout cricket. You win so many matches in a row, there’s probably always one somewhere along the line where you’re not going to have a good day. And unfortunately, today was the day.”

Though South Africa broke their major tournament trophy drought when they won the World Test Championship final last June, also under Conrad, they are yet to win a white-ball World Cup. The number of times they have slipped up at crunch moments, including most recently the 2024 T20 World Cup final from a winning position, and the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-final, also in Kolkata, means that they’ve earned the unwanted tag of chokers. Conrad believes that is both unfair and expects it to continue.

“There’ll be enough people that are going to be jumping on the bandwagon but we did so many special things. I’m so proud of these guys,” he said. “I don’t think many people gave us much of a chance of even getting into a semi-final when we left the shores, given our form before that. But that’s no consolation or anything like that. I think it’s cue the abuse now and there’ll be enough of it.”